THE GOVERNMENT Office is not obliged to make available the audio recording of one of the first meetings of Robert Fico’s cabinet, according to a Supreme Court ruling announced on April 21, the ČTK newswire reported.
The audio recording of the cabinet meeting was requested by Ondrej Dostál, the director of the Conservative Institute and a board member of the non-parliamentary Civic Conservative Party (OKS), who alleges that the cabinet decided on the illegal dismissal of state secretaries from Slovak ministries at a meeting in 2006.
He advanced arguments to the court that the public’s right to information is guaranteed by Slovak legislation. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that an audio recording is not information that falls under Slovakia’s Freedom of Information Act and that it was enough for the government to inform citizens about the cabinet session on its webpage to satisfy the applicable legal requirements.
Dostál commented that the “verdict and its justification was absurd”.
