Slovakia

[SK] New Press Act

IRIS 2006-8:1/30

Jana Markechová

Markechova Law Offices

The Slovakian Ministry of Culture and the Arts has submitted to the Government a draft Act on the rights and obligations of persons obtaining, processing and publishing information and publicly distributing it via the media ( tlačový zákon - Press Act). On account of the shortened parliamentary term, the Slovakian Government has not yet dealt with the draft Act. However, it is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2007. The Press Act will completely replace the current Act No. 81/1996 on periodical publications and other mass media.

The draft Press Act aims to regulate comprehensively the procurement and processing of information by the media. It is also designed to regulate relations between authors, the media and the public, bearing in mind the public's right to information.

The Act regulates the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons who, as part of their journalistic activities, obtain, process or publish information, regardless of whether they publicly distribute that information as a result of their journalistic activities or otherwise, or of whether they are directly or indirectly involved in its procurement, processing, publication or public distribution. It particularly covers publishers of periodicals, broadcasters who are allowed to operate a news agency on the basis of the Act or a licence, distributors of periodicals and journalists.

The Act covers:

- periodicals published or publicly distributed in the territory of the Slovak Republic;

- programmes or other components of a broadcaster's programme service that are the result of journalistic activities, including teletext;

- audiovisual works that are considered to be the result of journalistic activities and which were produced or publicly distributed in the territory of the Slovak Republic;

- sound recordings of journalistic comments or picture and sound recordings of journalistic comments that do not constitute an audiovisual work and which were produced or publicly distributed in the territory of the Slovak Republic;

- all information that is publicly distributed by a news agency.

The following works are not covered:

- the Compendium of Laws of the Slovak Republic, the Register of Companies and other official gazettes;

- periodicals which exclusively serve official, business-related or company purposes or other internal needs of a legal or natural person, provided they are not sold to the general public;

- periodicals of natural or legal persons that are exclusively designed for those persons' own advertising activities;

- communications or newsletters that are disseminated via the Internet, computer or other communications networks at the request of an individual.