List of author's articles, page 13
Graphic anti-abortion billboards ruled unethical
AN ANTI-ABORTION cam-paign that unfurled a graphic photo of a mutilated fetus across hundreds of billboards and posters has met with fierce protests and a reprimand from the country's advertising council.The campaign, called Right to Live, flooded Slovakia with billboards showing a headless, bloody, 11-week-old fetus with visible limbs, in the palm of an adult.
Debate over school reform swells
THE GOVERNMENT and opposition both agree that Slovakia's education system is in desperate need of reform, but they are proposing very different ways to change it.Former education minister Martin Fronc, an MP for the Christian Democratic Movement Party (KDH), recently submitted to parliament a bill on amending the school law. Meanwhile, the Education Ministry, led by Ján Mikolaj, published its legislative plans for amending the school law on its website.
Companies could be punished for crimes
THE GOVERNMENT has introduced a bill that would let legal entities be punished for crimes, but not charged for them.This is in spite of the fact that when today's coalition members were part of the opposition, they opposed such penalties.
It's a miracle CDs were decoded: Pittner
LADISLAV Pittner was head of the Slovak intelligence service (SIS) when the decoding of the so-called "Mečiar CDs" started. He was also an MP for the Christian Democratic Movement Party (KDH) and interior minister in the first cabinet of Mikuláš Dzurinda.
Mysterious CDs finally decoded
THE CODE for the CDs presented to the prosecutor general by former prime minister Vladimír Mečiar three years ago, allegedly containing information about the clients of the country's notorious failed pyramid schemes, has finally been cracked.
Media session 'a political matter': Harabin
AFTER a special cabinet meeting about the media on September 4, Justice Minister Štefan Harabin said, "I am satisfied with the work of the media. They have notified me of many shortcomings."Harabin spoke to The Slovak Spectator about his thoughts on the media, but he refused to go into details about the cabinet meeting.
Haunted by the Holocaust
ON AUGUST 23, a Czech website published a list of Jews or "partial Jews" who come from Slovakia.It is hard to say whether all the people included on the list are actually Jewish. At first glance, it seems that two-thirds of them do not even have Jewish ethnicity, and do not practise the Jewish religion.
Cabinet passes resolution on media
PRIME Minister Robert Fico called a special meeting of cabinet to deal with what he called unethical behaviour on the part of the media.Several ministers told journalists shortly before the September 4 meeting that they did not have the slightest idea what they were supposed to discuss or why they had been summoned.
Attacks on minorities spark outcry
TWO racially-motivated assaults on minorities in Slovakia in a span of four days have activists and protesters calling on the government to do more to fight racist attacks.A black British skateboarder, Rodney Clarke, was beaten in the western Slovak city of Trnava on August 24. And a Roma couple was beaten on the way home from a funeral in Detva, in central Slovakia, on August 28.
Information could become less free: NGOs
WHILE the wording of the amendment to the Freedom of Information Act has not yet been published, the Justice Ministry's efforts to change the act have already provoked big worries for non-governmental organisations.They are expressing urgent fears that the changes will limit access to public information.The Slovak Justice Ministry says the upcoming amendment will enable the blind and visually impaired to have equal access to public information. The current law does not solve this problem, the ministry says.
SMK split unlikely
THOUGH the leadership of the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) denies any upheaval in their ranks, political observers have raised the possibility that disgruntled SMK supporters could start a new ethnic Hungarian party in Slovakia.Hungarian intellectuals living in Slovakia say they can hardly identify with the direction the SMK has taken since Pál Csáky replaced Béla Bugár in the top post, Péter Hunčík, one of the co-founders of the Public Against Violence party, wrote in Új Szó, a Hungarian daily published in Slovakia.
Journalist's home torched
AN INVESTIGATIVE journalist in eastern Slovakia is wondering which of her stories led someone to set her house on fire.Naďa Šindlerová of the Slovak weekly Plus Sedem Dní was home on August 28 when the lower part of the facade of her house was soaked with gasoline and set on fire.She doubts the fire was set for personal reasons, because she has no personal disputes, she told The Slovak Spectator.
'I would like to be a humane human being'
WRITER Heinz Jakob Tauber calls himself a Slovak Jew - even though he was born in Vienna, spent his childhood in the town of Holíč in the Slovak-Moravian border area, wrote his books in Czech, and has been living in Israel for nearly 40 years.
Radičová: Mistakes were made
Journalists have recently been speculating about whether Iveta Radičová - the opposition politician, vice-chair of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) party, and former labour, social affairs and family minister - has a realistic chance of becoming the next Slovak president. That's in response to her rising popularity in the polls.
New opposition leader?
THE MOST recent opinion poll suggests that former labour minister Iveta Radičová is the most popular opposition politician.She trails only Prime Minister Robert Fico and President Ivan Gašparovič, who have been dominating the popularity polls for a much longer time.
Privilégium forced to return state subsidy
THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL organisation Privilégium will have to return subsidies totalling Sk2 million (€59,200) to the state after officials discovered the group used misleading information to acquire the money.
A tale of two regimes
MIROSLAV Lehký has witnessed two events that significantly altered the course of Slovak history. In August, Slovakia commemorates both of those anniversaries.On August 21, 1968, the Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia. On August 29, 1944, the Slovak National Uprising began in the fascist Slovak State, which was a satellite of Hitler's Germany.
STV 'needs more independence': director general
RADIM Hreha does not have an easy job, especially not at a time when a steady stream of reporters is leaving the news department of the Slovak Television (STV) public broadcaster. The Slovak Spectator spoke to Hreha, the director general of the STV, about the quality of the institution's newscast, struggles with finances, reshuffling within the institution, and the prospect of moving Slovak Radio and the TASR newswire into the same building as the STV.
More journalists jump ship at STV
TWO more journalists have left Slovak Television to protest what they have called political interference in their work, even as the STV management claims that tensions at the public broadcaster are calming down.
Fico's fight with media escalates
THE MOST recent clash between Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and the media is centred on the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and the Family, Viera Tomanová.The row erupted after three newspapers reported that Tomanová approved a state subsidy of Sk1.5 million (€44,800) for the Privilégium non-profit organisation.
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