BRATISLAVA, June 29, (WEBNOVINY) — In the Wednesday vote to repeatedly approve the vetoed Press Act, Parliament disregarded one of the reasons why President Ivan Gasparovic vetoed the revision and declined to change the provisions containing the term ‘good morals‘ that the president criticized. Parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the amendment in its original wording. The head of state cited the reference to ‚good morals‘ as the reason why he vetoed and returned to parliament the amendment to the Press Act. According to his reasoning, the president cannot agree with the application of this formulation in examples cited in the law. The President’s reasons earned harsh criticism of Prime Minister Iveta Radicova.
In line with the wording of the re-approved Press Act, all public functionaries, chairpersons and deputy chairs of political parties as well as political parties will lose the right to reply if the critical statements published in media are related to the execution of their office. The right of reply, however, is reserved for public officials if they apply it as private individuals, in compliance with the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. The right to reply will be limited to untrue, incomplete or truth distorting statements. The applicable law enables reacting even to true statements and media must publish such reaction. The present wording of the Press Act was adopted by the previous government of Robert Fico, when it stirred a wave of protest from the opposition and press publishers.
SITA