In connection with the legal review of the Slovak Press Act commissioned by the OSCE’s Representative on the Freedom of the Media (http://www.osce.org/fom/item_1_29685.html) and prepared by Article 19 (http://www.article19.org/pdfs/press/slovakia-media-bill-pr.pdf), MEMO 98 carried out a background research which included collecting and analyzing of relevant national and international media legislation, ECHR case law, best practices, emerging trends and guidelines. In addition, the consultancy included recommendations on how to modify the existing Press Act draft to bring it in line with modern democratic standards.

In his press release issued on 14 February 2008 (along with the legal review which included a set of recommendations) the OSCE’s Representative on the Freedom of the Media Miklos Haraszti stated: "as the Slovak Government put the draft on the Parliament's agenda in its present, highly controversial form, the only way to improve it now is through amendments.” Summarizing the RFOM recommendations, Miklos Haraszti said: "We continue to ask the Slovak Government to remove Section 6(1) on content restrictions imposable by the Culture Ministry. As our review shows, this provision would turn government officials into judges of media content, and could lead to arbitrary abuse for political ends." He also urged the Government to cut the three new mandatory remedial duties that the draft imposes on editors: a 'right of correction' for inaccuracies, a 'right of reply' for critical opinions, and a 'right to supplementary information', when a trial's outcome was not sufficiently reported.

The Press Act draft was also criticized by Freedom House (http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=619) and also Reporters Without Borders (http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25254).

 OSCE Statement