CELEBRATING the wartime Nazi-allied Slovak state, praising the new regional governor for taking down the EU flag and hateful rhetoric have become typical in the official newspaper of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region, financed from public funds.
The monthly paper published by the regional office has changed its content and form dramatically since Marian Kotleba, known for his background as a far-right extremist, took over the regional governor’s post. The paper’s previously red-themed design is now in black-and-white and contains propagandistic articles espousing Kotleba’s opinions, as well as attacks on Kotleba’s predecessors and political opponents, the omediach.com media news portal wrote.
Transparency International Slovensko, an NGO, has noted that the regional offices tended to abuse the taxpayer-funded newspaper to promote the work and activities of the governors in the past as well.
“But none of the former governors has even come close to the way Marian Kotleba turned the regional monthly, with a circulation of 240,000 for €40,000, into a propaganda pamphlet of his party,” TIS wrote on their Facebook page, calling on the regional authorities to stop financing the monthly from public funds.
Source: omediach.com, Transparency International Slovensko
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
