Martinus warns against some content

THE MARTINUS bookshop has started to warn its customers about potentially controversial contents of the books it sells online.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: SME)

People are thus recommended to think critically about the contents of the books. They are not discouraged to purchase the books though, the Sme daily reported.

“We try to point to the books whose contents experts consider very controversial, untrue or inciting health risks,” Michal Meško, executive director of Martinus, told Sme.

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The warnings often appear near the books written by contributors to the Zem a Vek (Earth and Time) magazine, which often offers various conspiracy theories, and also some historians.

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Writer Michal Hvorecký perceives the warnings as necessary and an important step, while another writer Peter Juščák says that Martinus acts like a seller of ordinary goods, not books. He called the decision buck-passing, enforced by the economic situation.

Martinus does not warn against the contents of all books spreading nonsense or hatred, including Mein Kampf or books containing conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg group. Meško explains that there is a team of people who decide about the warning. This includes mostly books which are subjects of public discussion or wider media coverage.

“We have more than 200,000 books in our database, and we cannot consider every one of them in detail,” Meško added.

There is also no warning in the brick-and-mortar shops.

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Other bookshops addressed by Sme do not plan to introduce similar warning systems.

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