Slovakia

[SK] Press Act Adopted

IRIS 2008-5:1/29

Jana Markechová

Markechova Law Offices

The Slovak Ministry of Culture submitted a new draft of the Press Act to the National Council of the Slovak Republic in January 2008. This draft was adopted on 9 April 2008. If the President of the Slovak Republic does not veto it the National Council the Press Act should become effective as of 1 June 2008.

The adoption of the Press Act was preceded by a number of discussions resulting in disputes among the political parties. The opposition parties consider the Act to be undemocratic, in particular because of the established right of reply, and they did not vote for the adoption.

The adopted Press Act abrogates and fully substitutes the previously valid, but now due to development outdated, regulation of Act No. 81/1966 on Periodic Press and other Mass Information Means. The previous Act on Periodic Press has been amended nine times in total, and six times since 1989, whereby the individual partial amendments have always addressed only issues that were of concern at those particular times. The reason for this Act is that the quality of information, in particular the ways of acquiring information, processing information and the veracity of the information disclosed, is more important than the quantity of information considering the large number of information provided or available through new information technologies. The main aim of the Press Act is the regulation of the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons in connection with publishing and the public distribution of periodic press. Principal changes concern the substitution of registration through record keeping of the periodic press and the establishment of the right of correction, the right of reply and the right to additional notification as well as the conditions of their application. A new legal regulation constitutes also the responsibility of the editor for the contents published in the periodical press. Publishing of information and contents from another source does not relieve the editor from this liability. In addition, false data taken from any other source and subsequently published in the periodical press establishes the right of correction or the right of reply. These rights are based on the premise that everybody has a right to express themselves in relation to the subject matters that concern them. The editor’s liability is established as an objective liability, i.e. a liability without regard to the fault of the editor.

The right of correction requires that a false statement regarding a specific natural or legal person or an activity of a respective public authority body has been made. This false statement does not have to concern e.g. the credit of a natural person or the good reputation of a legal person, and it also does not need to have a negative impact on a natural person, legal person or a public authority body. The editor is obliged to publish the correction in a proposed wording, which he cannot change.

The subject matter of the right of reply is any statement (true, false or truth distorting) about a natural person, a legal person or a public authority body concerning the credit, dignity or privacy of a natural person, or the good reputation or name of a legal person or a public authority body. The editor is not permitted to intervene as regards the reply, and he also has no right to evaluate its veracity.

The Press Act also regulates:

- the rights and obligations concerning information acquisition and publishing of contents;

- the protection of the source and content of information;

- the obligations on the disclosure of obligatory data on periodic press.