In Slovakia, political information is disseminated through the mass media: television, radio, the press, and the internet.
On the whole there is little overt advocacy of political platforms in the media, and Slovakia is rated fairly highly among nations in terms of freedom of the press, which is upheld under the 1992 Slovak Constitution.
The main source (63 percent) of information about political issues for Slovak citizens is television broadcast.
[1] According to some experts, it is possible to detect that the majority of the media and journalists show liberal-right or centre-right attitudes.
[1] Over the years, the internet began to increasingly become an important source for information, over print media and radio as well as becoming a serious rival to television.
[6] According to some experts, the number of regular readers of traditional daily printed press is around a quarter of the population.
There also is a regional newspaper in Hungarian language named Új Szó (New Word), sold in the southern parts of Slovakia, which distributed 17,500 copies in September 2016.
[1] According to a 2008 research by the Institute for Public Affairs, the news programs of privately owned television companies were the main source of information for up to 38 percent of the population, while the news coverage of public service broadcaster Slovak Television (STV) reached around 25 percent of the population.
[1][6] In December 2010, it merged with Slovak Rádio's (SRo) creating the Radio and Television of Slovakia (Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, RTVS).
For example, two scandals covering overpriced costs for the opening ceremony by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs as well as the prime minister Robert Fico’s controversial attack on “some anti-Slovak journalists“ became very popular in the social media since two newspapers uploaded the related audio files in their Facebook pages.
In addition, there is the Press Agency of Cities and Villages of Slovakia (TAMO), which focuses on regional events.
[3][11] Prosecution is also provided for other kinds of expression, such as denial of the Holocaust or of the Armenian genocide and defamation of nationalities.
[4] Prime Minister Robert Fico himself initiated several of these lawsuits during his first term: when asked about a corruption case during a news conference in November 2016, he addressed several journalists as “filthy anti-Slovak prostitutes”.
[15] Also judges are often among the plaintiffs in defamation cases against Slovakian journalists: for instance, in the so-called Bonanno case, eight judges sued the publishers of the tabloid Nový Čas in 2013 over an article and some photos depicting them while wearing blue ear protectors and sporting mock assault rifles at a party.
Some media experts have expressed concern that this choice could threaten broadcasting independence, incentivizing RVR to issue fines.
[4] Separately, in 2012, Jaroslav Haščák, co-owner of Penta- a private business implicated in the so-called Gorilla case, a major corruption scandal- unsuccessfully asked for court injunctions against several websites that had published the core files regarding such scandal, and against a related book by the Canadian-Slovakian investigative journalist Tom Nicholson.
[4] Recently, the takeover of the public broadcaster RTVS (Radio and Television of Slovakia) by Jaroslav Rezník raised concerns about possible political pressures on media.
Rezník would allegedly have close ties with the conservative Slovak National Party (SNS) and works in the media sector since over 20 years.
[4][19] The authority which is enabled to rule on media ownership matters (e.g. cartels, abuses of dominant position) is the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (PMU).
[19] Some consider this financial group as linked to businessmen close to the political party Smer SD, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico.
[1] Fun rádio is owned by Boris Kollár, MP and current head of the political party Sme rodina.
He is the only owner of the Fun Media Group a.s., which own ten local radios and some web portals too.
[1] According to some experts, digitization poses a threat to the public service broadcaster Slovak Television (STV) rather than presenting new opportunities.
[23] The Murder of Ján Kuciak significantly tarnished the image of Slovakia when it comes to its freedom of press.