Inside Slovakia's crackdown on free media

Since Robert Fico's government took power in October 2023, there have been numerous attempts to repress media freedom. In the latest Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Slovakia fell by 12 places, from 17th to 29th.

Journalists in the country are now uniting in trade unions to protect the right of Slovak citizens to accurate and unbiased information.

Six years ago, on February 21, 2018, one of the biggest global news stories – not just in Slovakia – was the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova. Kuciak was the first Slovak journalist to regularly work on international investigations, including the Panama Papers.

The first killing of a journalist in Slovak history set off a chain of events and disclosures that eventually led to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Fast forward five and a half years, Robert Fico is back in power, and his government is trying to control media freedom on several fronts, changing laws and boycotting prominent journalist voices.

Civil society organisations, the opposition and media representatives are expressing their concerns that Slovakia is rapidly moving down the same path as Orban's Hungary.

Shuttering the public broadcaster

According to the RSF report, both "public and privately owned media remain vulnerable to interests unrelated to journalism in Slovakia."

In the second half of June, 78 coalition parliamentary members passed a new law that replaces the public broadcaster Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS) with the new STVR, effective from 1 July. According to the Minister of Culture, Martina Šimkovičová, RTVS was not objective enough. With the changes in the public broadcaster law, STVR will be under greater government control.

"The director of the new broadcaster will be elected by the board, whose members are partially elected by the Ministry of Culture," Soňa Gyarfašová, an RTVS journalist, told FairPlanet. Of the nine board members, four will be appointed by the Ministry of Culture and five by the majority of the Parliament.

Gyarfašová has been working for the public broadcaster for 15 years, documenting stories of people who lived under Nazism, Communism or both totalitarian regimes.

"Some of my older colleagues say this reminds them of personnel commissions or a censorship body from the time of totalitarianism," added Gyarfašová. She said that employees are awaiting to see how the STVR will operate from now on.

The process of passing the law occurred without any expert discussion, leaving the public broadcaster unprepared for the change. On its first day, it operated without a new logo, domain or director. Once the new director was appointed on 3 July, Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová announced her intention to meet with him weekly.

In addition to the new board members, members of the new Ethical Commission, which will serve as an advisory body to the board, should also be elected.

"It is a dark day for the independent public space in Slovakia. It is a dark day for the media environment in Slovakia. And it is a dark day for the civil society in Slovakia," said RTVS CEO Ľuboš Machaj after the law was passed. He had to leave his position as the law came into force.

"It is sad that 35 years after November 1989, it turns out that politicians and oligarchs hold this state in their hands, and they determine the future of Slovakia."

Gyarfasova was one of several RTVS employees who tried to prevent the law from passing. They utilised resources they hadn’t previously tapped into when past governments attempted to alter the public broadcaster's situation. They first created a petition with 1,200 signatures from employees and co-workers, objecting to the purposeful changes.

"Since nobody wanted to talk to us, we took several other steps until we went on a warning strike," said Gyarfašová. 

They established a new trade union for creative employees of Radio and Television Slovakia to support their colleagues. They organised various protests in front of the RTVS building and the parliamentary building, which were mostly attended by RTVS employees.

Two days before the law was passed, various representatives of RTVS, including Gyarfašová herself, attended a Special Committee of the Slovak Parliament where the situation around RTVS was supposed to be discussed. The only coalition member present was the committee chairman, Roman Michelko, who listened to the arguments of the RTVS employees but argued against them.

"We do not have the power to stop the adoption of the law, but as long-time creators, we want to point out that we do not consider it a good decision. Unfortunately, our arguments remain unheard," Gyarfašová stated that day. 

The new bill regarding the public broadcaster in Slovakia had already been objected to by the European Commission when the Minister of Culture, Martina Šimkovičová, presented its first draft.

"Slovakia is a test ground for the newly adopted European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). If the public broadcasting bill is adopted in its current form and the European Commission won't react, a loophole in the application of the EMFA risks being created," Pavol Szalai from RSF told FairPlanet. 

EMFA was passed by the European Parliament a few months ago to protect journalists from political and economic interests.

"We hope that a signal will be sent out [by the European Commission], among others, by its upcoming annual rule-of-law report that covers each member state," said Szalai. "Slovak citizens must not be discriminated against as to the respect of their rights and freedoms which they enjoy as European citizens."

External interests

However, the new public broadcaster law is not the only bill the current Slovak government is trying to pass to control media freedom.

"Although it has been modified, the NGO Bill risks facilitating the harassment of media critical of the government," said Szalai. "The amendment to the Freedom of Information Act allowing the authorities to ask for a payment for 'exceptionally demanding' information requests is another bill threatening the right to information in Slovakia. Both bills must be modified after an inclusive public debate including the impacted stakeholders like the media."

The new NGO Bill aims to categorise NGOs based on their funding, with the intention of labeling organisations that receive financial support from abroad. This bill is similar to the Hungarian law regarding non-governmental organisations.

Changes to the Freedom of Information Act were introduced following the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico. The adoption of new bills has been occurring with minimal discussion with experts in the fields or the opposition. Coalition politicians often do not attend the respective committee meetings where proposed bills should be openly debated.

They have also been boycotting political debates in private media, forcing TV stations to cancel any critical programmes. The latest casualty was the most-watched political programme, Na telo, which government politicians had ignored for weeks.

TV Markíza suspended the programme only a few days after its presenter, Michal Kovačič, won the Slovak Press Award. At the end of the last episode, Kovačič openly spoke about the government's intentions to control television content.

The reasons for the interference in content production could be the economic interests of its owner, the investment group PPF, which is investing in state projects. Independent outlet Dennik N, Dennik N, an independent daily newspaper, reported that PPF has numerous investments in Slovakia that depend on cooperation with the state.

The latest key contract, worth nearly 14 million euros without VAT, was signed between PPF and a state-owned company at the beginning of May. Dennik N further reports that Slovakia is significant for the investment group, particularly in the construction and telecommunications sectors, among others.

Journalists from the news and publicity department have been speaking out about pressures on content for months. They also established a trade union demanding journalistic objectivity and impartiality, standing in support of Michal Kovačič.

Several journalists from Pravda daily newspaper recently decided to quit their positions due to increased censorship. 

"According to voices from inside the editorial office, journalists are guided to not look for bad news only, but also to write about the good things that the government is doing," wrote Dennik N after speaking to various reporters from Pravda.

Fake news and hate speech

Working under censorship is one challenge; facing daily hate speech is another. Slovak journalists are exposed to hateful comments on social media not only from anonymous accounts but also from public figures and government politicians.

For example, famous rapper Patrik "Rytmus" Vrbovský publicly shared the phone number of journalist Matej Príbelský from Aktuality.sk on his Instagram, asking his more than 760,000 followers to send messages to the journalist. This came after Príbelský asked questions about Vrbovský supporting Peter Pellegrini in his presidential campaign. Within a few days, Príbelský received hundreds of hateful messages.

Meanwhile, Robert Fico has referred to journalists with various derogatory terms in the past, including "Soros' pigs" and "hyenas."

The Center for Investigative Journalism of Jan Kuciak, established after Kuciak’s murder, is one of the organisations providing protection and support for journalists. Its initiative The initiative Safe.journalism.sk monitors attacks on journalists and assists those who become targets.

And while journalists from mainstream media are under threat or boycotted, government politicians discuss crucial topics in media outlets known for spreading fake news and misinformation on issues ranging from the Russia-Ukraine war to flat-earth conspiracy theories.

"Slovakia has unfortunately become a battlefield of disinformation. The country is also a laboratory of political deep fakes, as shown by the spread of the fake recording ahead of the September 2023 election, the first deep fake potentially impacting a European democratic election," said Pavol Szalai from RSF.

"The way out of this informational chaos beneficial to propaganda is a stronger regulation of digital platforms. In its proposals for the newly elected European Parliament, RSF recommends obliging search engines and social networks to promote trustworthy information. 

"We also recommend subjecting generative artificial intelligence to a stronger regulation. Regulating digital platforms and AI, which make the 'alternative' information impactful, is more compliant with rule of law than outright bans of the outlets spreading them," said Szalai.

These events are not occurring in a vacuum in Slovakia. Hate speech has become normalised in the highly polarised society, a result of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Both events have provided fertile ground for the spread of disinformation.

"The Slovak media landscape - just like its society - is highly polarised. The tragic shooting of Prime Minister Robert Fico against the background of a polarised society shows that the need for pluralistic and independent public media, which can facilitate debate across the political spectrum in a time of crisis, has never been greater," Szalai added.

Image by Amanna Avena.