The cabinet announced on November 29 that it would request the Attorney General to examine whether Vladimír Mohorita, the editor-in-chief of the nationalist Zmena weekly, could be criminally charged for an article he wrote concerning the government's decision to allow NATO flights over Slovak territory during the Kosovo crisis.
The government wants to determine the legality of statements like "Slovaks! Let's reject this government of mass murderers," "crazy Satanists from the US and NATO are killing Slovaks," and "Clinton is a student of Hitler, Dzurinda's government is Clinton's servant." Mohorita also described Slovakia's NATO co-operation as a "shameful and fratricidal act."
Juraj Hrabko, whom the cabinet authorised to investigate the case, said that an eventual complaint against Mohorita may be filed. A former journalist, Hrabko said he did not consider an eventual lawsuit as an attack against the independence of media and added that the government would not seek damages in compensation.
