Newspapers in Slovakia protest media legislation

Slovakia’s leading newspapers published identical protests on otherwise blank front pages Thursday to condemn legislation that they said would undermine press freedom. The six main dailies left their front pages empty except for a list of ‘seven sins’ in the legislation, which would require them to print responses by people or institutions to any news article even if the published information were true. ‘There is a serious risk for newspapers that their content will not be decided by the newsrooms but by politicians and their press departments demanding the right of reply after every critical sentence,’ wrote Dag Danis, chief columnist at Pravda, Slovakia’s largest broadsheet daily. The issue has blocked Slovak ratification of a European Union treaty that would overhaul EU institutions, because the political opposition refuses to back the treaty unless the government dilutes the proposed media law. ( Reuters)