The Slovakian Radio Council has instructed the country's radio stations to observe a strict balance of opinion in their programmes: the government may only be criticised if a government representative is immediately allowed to respond. After the introduction of a controversial press law, Slovakian journalists now fear for the freedom of the media. For the liberal daily Sme, the measure "borders on censorship. ... This is a precedence case, which makes the radio and television basically incapable of broadcasting political discussion. You cannot do more for plurality than inviting people with different opinions. The idea that objectivity means giving all possible opinions exactly the same air time is absurd. If you want strict impartiality, you will also have to stop the regular interviews with the head of government. These are nothing but monologues, devoid of any balance of opinion." (07/08/2008)

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All available articles from » Lukáš Fila

Germany figures less and less in Denmark's media landscape. In recent years many media, including the news agency Ritzau and Danmarks Radio, have withdrawn their Berlin correspondents for financial reasons. Flensborg Avis, the daily catering to the Danish minority in Germany, writes: "[It is] difficult to find good excuses for the miserable coverage the Danish media give Germany, Denmark's biggest trade partner, closest ally and in many respects our most important neighbouring country. ... [This] is possibly a consequence of the tendency of Denmark's foremost media to follow the lead of major global electronic news media like CNN. ... We, however, believe it is rather an expression of a lack of imagination and the hunt for easy solutions which leaves readers, listeners and viewers in the lurch. To break with this editorial lack of imagination Denmark's leading media should begin to take a greater interest in a neighbouring country which has close ties with Denmark and is therefore interesting for its customers: Germany." (05/08/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Print media, » Germany, » Denmark

The French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo recently sacked the cartoonist Siné for a column considered anti-Semitic. Siné had speculated whether President Sarkozy's son, Jean Sarkozy, would convert to Judaism before his wedding. The political weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur criticises this reaction: "What we are seeing here is the very French left-wing anti-Semitism in a satirical weekly that wanted to remain 'dumb and dirty' ... but has become an institution. ... What has [Siné] done that others have not done much more vilely before him? Nothing other than lampooning someone. I find it highly interesting that a newspaper which stops at nothing should accept the idea that certain borders may not be transgressed. And I find it no less remarkable that a liberal newspaper like Libération agrees with [the publisher of Charlie Hebdo] Philippe Val on this point. What has happened in France? The answer is clear. This matter concerns Jews. And in the past humour at the expense of Jews has been known to end badly." (30/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Jean Daniel

In the year 1951 the US radio station Radio Free Europe started broadcasting in Romania. During the Ceausescu era the station was regarded as public enemy number one by the state. Tomorrow the station's Romanian service will close down. For Emil Hurezeanu who in the 1980s worked with the Romanian editing department on foreign affairs, the end of the broadcasting service comes too soon: "Each of the editors in his own way loved Romania, which in many respects was lost and which they nonetheless captured in their words that were broadcast night after night beyond the Iron Curtain to millions of eagerly waiting Romanians. ... Free Europe had a long and interesting life, even after 1989. While communism was collapsing in Eastern Europe, day after day we waited impatiently for our own obituary. It never came because the demise of communism, although already announced, was postponed - particularly in people's minds and even to this day. The new Free Europe ... remained a serious and valuable voice in Romania's confused landscape. It dies even though it should still live because it still has tasks to fulfil." (31/07/2008)

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The Polish government has failed in its attempt to reform Polish state radio. It did not manage to achieve the three-fifths majority in parliament required to overrule the veto of State President Lech Kaczyński. The Left-wing liberal newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza welcomes the defeat of the draft law: "A governing party should stay as far away as possible from public media organisations. Until now Premier Tusk seemed to have understood that. Although it is difficult to come to terms with the defeat in the Sejm [the Polish parliament] on Friday, exercising restraint in its influence on the public media can only be a good thing for the [governing party] the PO. In recent months the [conservative opposition and presidential party] PiS has introduced far more pluralism into radio and television than during its two years in government when they were a mouthpiece for a party and a channel for aggressively hounding the opposition." (28/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Marcin Wojciechowski

The British government plans to combat illegal downloading of music titles from the internet in a collaborative effort with internet service providers (ISPs). Emily Bell, online chief editor of The Guardian takes a critical look at the control of internet activities: "While nobody should endorse illegal file-sharing, the issue of monitoring internet use is controversial. ... Can the free-content genie of the internet really be forced back into the bottle? The answer will depend on how hard companies want to try, how much they are prepared to spend on it and whether they are happy to risk audience extinction. ... The record industry, and the ISPs for that matter, might reflect on the fact that neither they nor governments and regulators have had the greatest effect on reversing the decline in paid-for music. ... If the campaign succeeds, then what? The free downloaders will not replace the illegal sharing with paid-for music. They might be less inclined to populate the festivals or buy the T-shirts. They might turn off their computers and learn an instrument instead or, more likely, find a different online activity to fill the void." (29/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Emily Bell

The daily De Morgen considers the role of the media in the current crisis of the Belgian state: "Standards of journalistic ethics do not have a Flemish, a Wallonian or a Dutch value but a universal one. Objective reporting of the facts is part of this. Many American media organisations abandoned this journalistic principle following 9/11, driven either by nationalistic motives or because they were afraid of being accused of anti-patriotism. ... Amid the turbulent political mood in Belgium there is a danger that both the Flemish and the Wallonian press will adopt precisely the same attitude as the American media did back then. ... The inherent danger here is that links will be forged between journalism and politics that compromise the press's role as a critical observer of political power. ... The deliberate use of superlatives, generalisations and exaggerations in order to win the readers' favour violate the central function of journalism." (24/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Audiovisual Media, » Print media, » Belgium
All available articles from » Jan van Groesen

The title page of the New Yorker magazine featuring a cartoon that depicts the democratic US presidential candidate Barack Obama as a Muslim extremist has caused uproar in the US media. The scandal prompts the daily Delo to examine the role of the media today. "It is a sad fact for the moribund journalistic profession that nowadays only satire addresses the truly serious problems in society that the so-called serious media - which these days are nothing more than advertisers for the special interests of their owners - no longer report on. ... Instead of making this carefully fabricated prejudice the main theme in the media ... everyone is attacking the magazine that dared to depict this stereotype. ... But since the advisers around Obama, who is represented as the candidate for change ... condemned the New Yorker's title page, the neutral observers of America's election campaign fever are asking: where are all these [purported] changes?" (16/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Boris Cibej

Since 1939 the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has broadcast in Romania. The programme is to be discontinued as of August 1. In an article for the Romanian blog ACUM, former BBC employee Petru Clej gives a nostalgic review: "With the conclusion of Romania's BBC programme an important symbol will disappear. For the older generation it brings back memories of the war, when Radio London strived to correct the false information delivered by Hitler and Antonescu. During the times of the 'Cold War', which lasted considerably longer, the BBC once again broke the information block of a totalitarian regime, this time that of the communists. After the fall of communism the BBC service in Romania reached the peak of its popularity, with around 16 percent of Romanian adults tuning in to its programmes. ... In Romania the BBC was always a model for how public opinion can be formed: with rational, unbiased journalism that never relied on shrill tones or flashy but meaningless pamphlets as the Romanian media does. ... Farewell, BBC. We will miss you!" (11/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Petru Clej