Eastern European media refuse political intimidation

Prompted by the Slovakian media's protest action yesterday, Josef Kirchengast compares the situation of the media in the different countries of Eastern Europe. He notes that the Slovak Prime Minister is by no means the only head of government trying to exercise censorship in Central Europe: "His Slovenian counterpart, Janez Janša, who is on the other side politically, is facing irrefutable accusations that he is restricting the freedom of the media through more or less subtle methods. Janša's supporters have brought charges against 571 people who signed a journalists' petition against censorship. In Hungary, during his term as prime minister, Viktor Orban, the current right-wing nationalist leader of the opposition, had 'black lists' of journalists compiled. And in Poland the previous nationalist conservative government was permanently at war with the independent media. ... In the Czech Republic, there has been a tradition of heads of government making attacks and threats against the media ever since the fall of communism. But in none of the cases listed above have the governments in question been able to prevent being voted out of office with their attempts to intimidate and discipline the media."

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