It’s not looking good. Independent media in Slovakia 2024 is taking a lot of beating

Let me just start by saying I’m in conflict here. You are reading a take on the current state of Slovak media from a Slovak journalist working for an independent publisher (Petit Press) in Slovakia. So yes, I’m biassed, but I don’t think this is a time to be silent.

In the last few weeks and months, since the new Slovak government led by Robert Fico in his fourth term as prime minister was formed, pressure on independent media in the country has increased.

Only a few days ago we commemorated the murder of our colleague Jan Kuciak and his fiancée. It’s been six years since they were murdered in cold blood in their own home. I remember at the time we as journalists and society as whole felt like the country hit rock bottom.

Six years later things don’t look great.

Journalists under attack

Just this week my colleague Zuzana Kovacic Hanzelova of SME.sk, one of the most popular hosts of political debates, announced she is taking time off hosting because of constant attacks and harassment from the ruling party and its lackeys.

“What I have experienced from disinformers in the last two years has now moved into politics. The current government openly says that the main enemy is us journalists, and does not hesitate to use lies and misrepresentation,” Hanzelova wrote.

“The attacks are multiplying after every debate I publish. Attacks on journalists and me personally have become a working tool of politicians. Moreover, it crossed the line of criticism beyond my work. The attacks target my identity, personal life and reputation. They are deliberately humiliating, deceptive, disgusting and impossible to defend against,” she continued.

In her farewell edition of the newsletter, which will also go on hiatus, Hanzelova documents some of the attacks, the unwillingness of police investigators to act and explains that perhaps the last drop was a recent physical attack. An unknown man grabbed her hair from behind and started shaking her head. He then quickly fled.

Not being able to feel safe walking home alone is the line none of us should experience.

Two weeks ago one of the most popular political commentators, Marián Leško of Denník N, was literally ambushed by a member of the parliament from the ruling party just to film a gotcha moment. Erik Kaliňák, the nephew of the Slovak Defence Minister, is serving his first term as an MP and leads many of the vicious attacks by the government. Kaliňák is also the head of Prime Minister Fico’s council of advisors.

Together with his crew armed with cameras they waited for Leško after a live discussion in one of Bratislava’s theatres. As soon as they saw him leaving they started following him and pressing to apologise for his remarks towards Kaliňák calling him a liar.

In a subsequent debate between the two Kaliňák confessed he and his crew have been looking for a chance to confront Leško in person for months. But only recently found out he could be caught by leaving through a side exit of the theatre where the live show regularly happens.

Institutions under attack

Also this week a new report by the independent Denník N described the subtle changes that have been happening in the largest TV station in the country, TV Markíza, which has the most watched evening news in Slovakia. In January, its evening news was watched by 493,000 viewers above the age of 12.

Until 2020, TV Markíza was owned by WarnerMedia, but the company has been looking to sell its regional portfolio represented by the Central European Media Enterprises (CME) for years. In 2019, WarnerMedia agreed to a deal with PPF group of Czech billionaire Peter Kellner (who died in a helicopter crash in Alaska on a heliskiing trip in March 2021).

Up until the end 2023, there were no signs of interference from the new management towards Markíza. As Denník N reported, things started to change after the parliamentary election in late 2023 when the current government won and took over.

Last October, only a few weeks after the elections, Matthias Settele, who had been the CEO of TV Markíza for ten years, was replaced by Peter Gažík. Gažík actually started his career as a foreign correspondent at the station, but has left journalism and worked as executive manager for various companies in the telecom sector for PPF for the past several years.

Another change came this year when the long-time director of news and journalism, Henrich Krejča, resigned. He was replaced by Michal Kratochvíl from TV Nova, the Czech “sister” TV station.

According to the reports, Kratochvíl has been promoting less emphasis on political news and encouraged editors to avoid confrontations with government politicians. Reporters of TV Markíza were famous for chasing politicians across the parliament, but you couldn’t get a glimpse of that recently in the evening news.

And only a few days ago, one of the editors of the evening news, Martin Halanda, suddenly ended up working at the television.

Since the government of Robert Fico was formed, the Prime Minister and leaders of the government have been very vocal about not talking to critical press. Denník N, SME, Aktuality (where Jan Kuciak worked) and TV Markíza were singled out as the enemy media or “anti-government media” as Fico likes to repeat.

Why the sudden change in tone? As Denník N put it in its reporting, the current owner, PPF group, has part of its business based on state contracts, which could motivate the owners of the television to try to have good relations with the Slovak government. 

TV Markíza is not the only television that has been under pressure as the smallest governmental party, the nationalist SNS, has been looking for ways to take influence over the public broadcaster RTVS, a joint TV and radio corporation.

When the plans to split RTVS again into a separate TV and radio failed (it would cost too much), SNS has been signalling it is looking for other ways, even changing the public service broadcaster into a state controlled joint stock company.

SNS keeps mentioning the public TV in Poland as a model, but anyone who has been following how quickly was able the former ruling party to take over the public TV and radio (we also covered it in The Fix), knows that model is prone to break easily unlike the Czech public broadcasters which commend big audiences and high trust at the same time no matter what government rules.

What comes next

Beata Balogova, the editor-in-chief of SME, often cites the example of the Hungarian media and how Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was able to take control of the majority of the media landscape, calling it a media capture. 

In some ways, Hungarian society was slow to realise how independent press was being taken over until it was too late. It serves as a warning for anyone in this region.

When the investment group Penta started making moves into media by taking over a minority stake in Petit Press (that’s when a large part of the newsroom left to form Denník N), it was the first time the media capture scenario in Slovakia was being mentioned in discussions.

Petit Press was able, thanks to an investment from the Media Development Investment Fund, to get rid of Penta. But Penta continued its shopping spree throughout the years and was able to acquire the most widely read tabloids.

As Filip Struhárik reported for Denník N, Penta uses its titles for lobbying for its interests in the health sector or supports the ruling parties of Fico’s Smer and his prodigy Peter Pellegrini’s Hlas.

Having watched what has happened in Hungary and has been happening around media consolidation in the country, all these events put together paint a rather bleak image of media freedom in Slovakia.

Source of the cover photo: Bubamara, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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