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Alert

Prosecutor's office threatens to pursue action for criminal libel against journalist

(IPI/IFEX) - The following is an IPI letter to President Rudolf Schuster:




H.E. Rudolf Schuster
President
Bratislava
Slovak Republic

Fax: + 421 7 544 17 532

Vienna, 4 December 2002

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, leading journalists and media executives, is concerned at the threat of the prosecutor's office to pursue an action for criminal libel against a Slovakian journalist.

According to information provided to IPI, a threat of criminal action for libel has been made against PRAVDA journalist, Vanda Vavrova, for a series of articles revealing alleged corruption within the judiciary in Slovakia. Furthermore, the President of the Supreme Court, Stefan Harabin, has accused the journalist of damaging his public reputation.

In recent days, the threat setting out the legal action against Vavrova has been sent to the Slovakian media. Although it has not been activated, the threat is seen as an attempt to subdue the local media and prevent them from reporting on judicial matters.

If prosecuted under Article 206 of the Penal Code, Vavrova faces a possible jail sentence of between one to five years and she may, in addition, be fined or banned from practicing as a journalist. Under Article 206 of the Penal Code, criminal libel is committed if, "a person announces false information about another person, which has the potential to considerably harm the person's reputation, his public credit, harm him in his work and disturb his family relations or cause him other serious damage."

While IPI makes no comment on the information contained in the articles written by Vavrova, it is of the strong opinion that the decision to bring a criminal libel action is a serious press freedom violation. Criminal defamation unfairly stigmatises journalists for their work and it has a chilling effect by encouraging other journalists to censor themselves. For this reason, it is a severe hindrance to everyone's right to "seek, receive and impart information" in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In addition, the decision comes at a time when many other countries have decided to remove the offence from their statute books and it is unfortunate that Your Excellency's government has decided to move in the opposite direction by affirming the prosecution of journalists for their writing.

Therefore, with the above in mind, IPI asks Your Excellency to work with all interested parties in Slovakia to eliminate criminal defamation laws from the statute books. In addition, IPI also believes that, where a party feels it has been offended, the civil courts offer a suitable venue.

We thank you for your attention,

Johann P. Fritz
Director

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H.E. Rudolf Schuster
President
Bratislava
Slovak Republic
Fax: +421 7 544 17 532

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