Former prime minister and current Smer candidate Robert Fico has called for a two-week post-election moratorium to ensure coalition talks are held free of media interference, a move ARTICLE 19 and Reporters Without Borders have criticised for being close to absurd and threatening media freedom.
If current frontrunner Smer wins in the September snap election, its leader Fico promises a “two-week moratorium on any media information” as a first step to give parties time to negotiate government coalitions.
Media experts polled by EURACTIV Slovakia assume this was meant as a “gentlemen’s agreement”, as legislative post-election moratoriums are unheard of.
“ARTICLE 19 would be very concerned about any gentlemen’s agreement of politicians not to communicate with the media. Frankly speaking, this idea verges on the absurd,“ says Barbora Bukovská, Senior Director for Law and Policy at ARTICLE 19.
Bukovská stresses that the creation of the new government is a matter of “utmost importance, “ and politicians’ whole purpose is to inform the public about their political messages.
In 2019, Smer attempted to push through an extended 50-day moratorium on opinion polls before parliamentary elections, one of the longest in the world, but the Constitutional Court slashed the period to two weeks. In 2021, parliamentarians changed it to 48 hours.
Smer’s move to boycott one of the largest TV stations, Markíza, is “very concerning”, said Pavol Szalai, Head of the EU-Balkans Desk of Reporters Without Borders, while acknowledging that politicians have the right to set their own communication strategies.
“If the biggest party boycotts the biggest television station, the citizens’ right to information is restricted. This is especially true of the election campaign, during which citizens decide which party to vote for,” said Szalai as he urged Smer to stop the boycott joined by far-right Republika.
Smer, for its part, alleges the TV’s coverage in pre-election debates was biased.
Szalai points out two recent cases in which Smer’s actions contributed to online attacks on journalists.
In one case, journalist Matej Príbelský received attacks after his article about Fico’s participation in “the show of a YouTuber with three international arrest warrants” and Marta Jančkárová after the public service broadcaster refused to “adapt to Smer’s communication strategy”.
(Barbara Zmušková | EURACTIV.sk)
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