Search results : 115

The Slovak Parliament approved a controversial amendment to Law No. 270/1995 of Coll. on the State Language of the Slovak Republic of 15 November 1995 (“State Language Law“), proposed by the Government on 30 June 2009. The Amendment, i.e., Law No. 318/2009 of Coll., shall come into effect on 1 September 2009. The reason for it is that the standard of oral culture in Slovakia is deteriorating. As the provisions concerning sanctioning (i.e., § 10 of the State Language Law) were repealed in 1999 due to imperfections in the provisions, the Ministry of Culture (“Ministry“) - as supervisor of adherence...

On 26 May 2009, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made public its latest reports on Belgium, Germany and Slovakia, adopted in the fourth round of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2009-5: 4, IRIS 2008-4: 6, IRIS 2006-6: 4 and IRIS 2005-7: 3). In respect of Belgium, ECRI “strongly recommends” that the State authorities “pursue and step up their efforts to combat the presence of racist expressions on the Internet” (para. 100), including through...

On 14 January 2009 a proposal for amendments to the Act No. 147/2001 Coll. on Advertisements and on the Amendments to Certain Acts (which entered into force on 1 May 2001) concerning the ban of alcohol advertising was made by members of the Slovakian Parliament. The amendment which is at the moment in the second reading is expected to come into effect on 1 June 2009. The reason for this proposal is the fact that alcoholism is becoming a serious and acute problem in society nowadays, particularly in the case of children and minors. Its explanatory report refers to the fact that the age of people...

The most watched TV channel in Slovakia, TV Markíza, is planning to launch its second channel. On 16 December 2008 the Board for Broadcasting and Retransmission granted TV Markiza a digital licence for a new channel which will focus on housewives and will be called „TV Doma“. TV Markíza did not specify when the new station will start broadcasting. However, TV Markiza must start broadcasting within 24 months from the day of receiving the licence. Currently the situation of the public service broadcaster Slovak Television (STV) is very critical. The governing council of STV moved to dismiss the...

The Slovak Parliament has recently approved the Audiovisual Fund Act No. 516/2008 Coll. (hereinafter referred to as “Act”). The Act came into effect on 1 January 2009 except for the provisions of § 32 ( Co-Production Statute - Koprodukčný štatút ), which will come into effect on 1 January 2010. The audiovisual fund is a public service institution whose most important purpose is to help revive Slovak films. According to this Act, the audiovisual fund will be financed inter alia by the State budget and by the broadcaster defined in the Act. The fund will support Slovak filmmaking, renewal, development...