The Slovak Constitutional Court (ÚS), led by its chairperson Ivetta Macejková, has decided to examine some provisions of the 2008 Act on Periodical Press and Newswires (also known as the Press Code) based on a motion from a group of Slovak MPs who say that it does not comply with the constitution or the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms.
A group of 42 opposition MPs led by Mikuláš Dzurinda, the chairman of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), applied to the ÚS in September 2008. In their motion they claim that that the provisions of the law concerning the duty of silence, the contents and source of information, the conditions under which publications are oblige to publish a correction, provisions affecting the balance between the right to a reaction and the right to a correction, as well as the provisions affecting the duty of a publisher to cover a due financial remedy amounting to a sum set in advance to a natural person who in vain requires the publication of a correction, reaction or due announcement, are not in compliance with the Slovak Constitution. The MPs argue these provisions represent an undue interference in freedom of speech and the right to information. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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