The Slovak Spectator in the media

January 19, 1995

Prognosis Weekly, Prague
"Battening Down the Doors With Angličtina"

"Starry-eyed American journalists, apparently struck by the indisputable glamour of publishing in English in Europe, seem to be ready to start up more English-language newspapers around these parts. No, not in Prague, exactly, but recently removed Prague English teacher and news upstart Rick Zedník appears to be contemplating a bi-weekly for all five native English-speakers in Bratislava. Good luck and don't say we didn't warn you."


March 2, 1995

Reuters Bratislava bureau
"English-language newspaper debuts in Slovakia"

"Slovakia's only English-language newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, hit the newsstands on Thursday, to cater for a rapidly growing number of English-speaking visitors and residents. Czechoslovakia's first post-communist, English-language newspaper, the Prague-based weekly Prognosis, announced on Wednesday it was folding after four years."


April 20, 1995

Slovenská Republika
"Against the Coalition"

"Guidelines used by The Slovak Spectator's reporters in conducting interviews and preparing articles are new to us. Until now, the unwritten law of our journalistic practice was the authorization of an article by a person who granted information and who is featured as a source. If you grant The Spectator an interview, you can't change your original quote while authorizing it, you can only add a remark or statement. In other words, everything you say may be used against you or others, even if the source detects possible harm caused by his quotes before the article is published."


December 20, 1995

Trend
"An English newspaper has taken hold in Slovakia"

"The Slovak Spectator differs from typical Slovak periodicals not only because it comes out in English, but also because it has a specific style of writing. The Anglo-American style of journalism is based on an analysis of events and their consequences. It is focused on their substance, not only on appearance. Their articles must be balanced and they must interpret the standpoints of opposing sides, supported by arguments, facts and quotes."


March 4, 1996

Práca
"In spite of politics, The Slovak Spectator organized a pleasant evening at West"

"It was not a bad idea. Two 'top' politicians in the spotlight, in front of the cameras, with the eyes of an audience glued on them and under fire from 'top' journalists - all that in the form of American presidential campaign debates. As one of the protagonists said, 'We need dialogues like this one.' On Friday evening, Dušan Slobodník and Ján Čarnogurský stood on the West theatre stage in order to 'fight each other' in American style on the topic of Slovak foreign policy."


October 23, 1996

Financial Times
"An unsolved mystery"

"Amid the welter of allegations and rumours in Bratislava, President Kováč has not given up hope, however, of eventually clarifying the circumstances behind the circumstances behind the kidnapping of his son. In an interview with The Slovak Spectator last month, he said, 'We know who abducted him. It's just a question of proof. We'll be able to prove the guilt of the perpetrators when Slovak laws are fully respected, when state investigators and the prosecution are not dependent on the prime minister. We will succeed. One day we will achieve this state of affairs."


January 23, 1997

HZDS newsletter Slovensko do toho!
"Convicted in advance"

"The Slovak Spectator, which is published in Slovakia, is financed by an American party and is dedicated to foreigners living in Slovakia. (You can find The Slovak Spectator in hotel rooms all around Slovakia, where tourists receive them as obligatory 'information'). It is another very well-planned maneuver in the mass media war. This 'independent' paper breathes the opposition's breath. And when they offer objectivity and plurality to express pro-Slovak and pro-government opinions, they do so only as a camouflage of objectivity."


April, 1997

Business Central Europe
"Fool's Paradise"

"[National Bank of Slovakia Governor] Vladimír Masár has steered an independent course. But the government will need an easing of monetary policy to finance its plans. And Mr. Masár conceded in a recent interview with The Slovak Spectator, a local newspaper, that "now there are certain pressures - someone wants to let me know that he too has the right to decide over the direction of such important matters as monetary policy and bank supervision.'"


May 2, 1997

Central European Business Weekly
"Rewriting history"

"The Slovak Spectator has more of a problem than other English-language newspapers in central and eastern Europe, to report the facts while at the same time staying in business in a climate that has become increasingly hostile to independent reporting. It is alarming that many nationalist supporters of the present government are trying to re-write history in a more favourable light, and the Spectator must be applauded for its courage."


July 2, 1997

Slovenská Republika
"That thing..."

"The Slovak Spectator proudly calls itself 'Slovakia's English-language newspaper' and it is published by some limited liability company (!) called The Rock. It is very unlikely that there is another democratic state in which another limited liability company would allow itself such arrogance and start its inciteful campaign in its newspaper against the constitutional bodies of the state in which it is operating."


January 15, 1998

Sme
"Unknown men beat up Slovak Spectator reporter"

"Three unknown men on the evening of January 11 attacked and beat up Thomas Nicholson, a reporter with an American bi-weekly newspaper, The Slovak Spectator. "Three men broke into my room at the Družba student hostel. They started beating me up, tied my hands and legs together and told me that they were Mafia and would kill me if I didn't hand over the documents they were looking for," said T. Nicholson for Sme. "They then took my stereo and CD's and wallet, and told me they would be back in 20 minutes, as soon as they had checked to make sure they had the right guy. They tied me by the hands, legs and neck to the bed and left, locking the door behind them." Nicholson managed to free himself, break out of his room and call police. So far investigators have not determined whether Nicholson was the victim of a violent robbery, or if the attack was Mafia-related."


October 11, 1999

The Washington Times
"Trouble in Slovakia?"

"'The SDK today behaves like an unstable political entity that is unable to restore order in its own kitchen,' said Ľubomír Andrassy, vice-chairman of the reformed Communist party, the second-largest group in the coalition. 'Its internal problems must be solved as quickly as possible because the stability of the entire government depends on the stability of the SDK,' he told The Slovak Spectator, an English-language Bratislava newspaper.


November 4, 1999

The Irish Times
"Optimism remains with the young in Slovakia"

"A recent article in The Slovak Spectator, a feisty English-language weekly, showed how government politicians had sold valuable state companies to friends at risible prices."

Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


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