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joint actions
H.E. Ivan Gaąparovič
President of the Slovak Republic
Office of the President of the Slovak Republic
Hodľovo nám. 1
P.O. Box 128
810 00 Bratislava 1
Slovakia
Vienna, 15 April 2008
Your Excellency,
We the undersigned, representing the International Press Institute and the international media, are writing to urge you to return the disputed Press Act (“the Act”) to the Slovak Parliament for further consideration and discussion.
The Act contains controversial changes to Slovakia’s current media legislation and was approved on its third reading on 9th April 2008, despite strong protests from the main opposition party, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party.
If signed into law, the Press Act will enable individuals, including politicians, to force newspapers to print replies to articles that have allegedly damaged their reputations.
These replies must be printed, whether or not the factual content of the article is in question. Replies must also be placed in the same position in the newspaper as the original article, and must be equivalent in size to the original article. In contrast, according to the Act, newspapers are prevented from answering the replies they were forced to print.
We believe that once enacted, the Act will enable politicians to interfere with editorial policy. The abuse of this law also risks self-censorship and consequent damage to public interest values in Slovakia.
Such a law has few equivalents in the European Union and some of the obligations fail to conform to the Council of Europe’s own standards on this issue.
At present, Slovakia chairs the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. By returning the Act to Parliament, we believe that Your Excellency will be signalling to the other members that Slovakia is extremely serious about its commitments to this fundamental human rights body.
In addition, the Slovak media, international organisations and intergovernmental organisations, such as the OSCE, have all made recommendations that the right of reply should be amended, but they have been ignored.
Therefore, in the name of maintaining a healthy, free and fair media environment in Slovakia, we the undersigned once again urge Your Excellency to return the Act to Parliament.
We thank you for your kind attention.
Yours sincerely,
Piotr Niemczycki, IPI Chairman David Dadge, IPI Director Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO SG
The following representatives of the international media and IPI members have also endorsed this petition:
EHRENREICH, Michael - Co-Editor, Kristeligt Dagblad, and IPI
Board Member, Denmark
HYON, So-Whan - Chief Editor, New and News.com, and IPI Board Member,
South Korea
LICINA, Radomir - Co-owner and Senior Editor, Danas, and IPI Board
Member, Serbia
MERSOL, Mitja - Editor-at-large, Delo, and IPI Board Member,
Slovenia
ABBOUD, Mazen H. - President, Union on Northern Association of
Development, Environment and Patrimony, Lebanon
ADEDOYIN, Raheem - Honourable Commissioner, Ministry of Information and
Home Affairs, Kwara State, Nigeria
BENCH, Markham - Executive Director, World Press Freedom Committee, USA
BLETHEN, Ryan - Associate Editorial Page Editor, Seattle Times,
USA
DEUTSCH KARLEKAR, Karin - Managing Editor, Freedom House, USA
ESSER, Robin - Executive Managing Director, Daily Mail, UK
HASRET, Azer H. - Chairman, CASCFEN, Azerbaijan.
HETLAND, Tom - Editor-in-Chief, Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway
HOGE, James F. Jr. - Editor, Foreign Affairs Magazine, USA
KLÍMA, Michal - Chairman and General Manager, Economia, a.s.,
Czech Republic
LOUW, Raymond - Editor and Publisher, Southern African Report,
Deputy Chairman, South African Chapter of MISA,
South Africa
LEEDS, Al - President & Editorial Director, LA Times – Washington Post
News Service, USA
MUDRY, Pavol - Chairman, SITA News Agency, Slovakia
MUSA, Tansa - Reuters Correspondent, Cameroon
PALIC, Marta - Editor, Radio Novi Sad, Serbia
ROCHA, Nuno - Director, Media XXI Magazine, Portugal
SHERMAN, Paddy - Publisher Emeritus, Pacific Press, Canada
STIBRAL, Milan - Director General, Czech News Agency, Czech Republic
VYSLOZIL, Dr. Wolfgang - CEO, Austria Presse Agentur (APA), Austria
WEBSTER, Norman - Columnist, Montreal Gazette, Canada
WERFELI, Martin - Chief Executive Officer, Ringier AG, Switzerland
___________________________
International Press Institute (IPI)
Spiegelgasse 2/29
A-1010 Vienna
Austria
Tel: + 431-512 90 11
Fax: + 431-512 90 14
E-mail: ipi@freemedia.at
http://www.freemedia.at
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