AN ADVERTISMENT that is in direct violation of the amended State Language Act has been posted in front of the Culture Ministry.
The poster, which reads “Bridget, I Love You, Mark”, was put up on February 10 by the civic association Friends of Free Information.
“Mark will have a problem, or the citizen association […] will,” Ondrej Dostál, the chairman of the association said, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
He explained that the poster, whose typeface and layout is reminiscent of the poster for the film Bridget Jones’s Diary, violates the amendment to the State Language Act that came into effect in Slovakia on September 1, 2009, and which stipulates that all public inscriptions, advertisements and announcements be written in the state language.
“If there is a violation of law going on, authorities have to be notified,” Dostál said.
“I’m trying to increase public awareness of that and therefore I cannot make an exception even when the law is being violated by a civic association of which I am the chairman.”
Dostál then entered the Culture Ministry to officially file a complaint.
The Friends of Free Information association has announced its intention to violate the Language Act as an act of civil disobedience in order to demonstrate that some of the provisions in the law go against citizens’ freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
They announced that they will notify the ministry of all their actions and, if fined, will bring a lawsuit to courts and even to the European Court for Human Rights if necessary.
