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Madaric: Months Ahead Won't See Changes in Press Act
Monday 04 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 4 (TASR) - Culture Minister Marek Madaric said on Monday that he doesn't expect that the Press Act will be made stricter or changed considerably within the next six months as was implied by Prime Minister Robert Fico in September 2009.
Fico last year suggested shortening the period in which the right to reply should be effective from three days to two or just one. At the same time he said that he would welcome it if the media weren't liable to fines only after a court ruling, but also as a result of the act itself.
Madaric thinks that entities that are calling for discussion with him on possible amendments should publicly correct their former statements concerning the law. "It can't be allowed that somebody could say that democracy in Slovakia is threatened when this law is adopted while more than a year of applied practice shows that nothing like that is happening, and they'd come without saying 'we were mistaken' or 'it hasn't been as we said', and they'd want to discuss changes," stressed Madaric, adding that he can hardly imagine a discussion taking place without extreme statements being revised.
According to Madaric, there haven't been any restrictions on the freedom of the press since the act came into effect and neither has investigative journalism or criticism of the Government and politics seen a decline. He noted that, conversely, people can more easily seek compensation from the media in the form of a correction or an apology. He is convinced that thanks to this the media deal with facts more responsibly. "I know that in the press media's war against the current Government they'll never concede that the Press Act has brought anything positive, but I'm deeply convinced that it has done so," he added.
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