VZCZCXRO3595
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHSL #0460/01 3021456
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291456Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0231
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHSL/AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA 0271

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRATISLAVA 000460 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM OIIP KPAO LO
SUBJECT: MEDIA, MADARIC, AND MOOLAH 
 
REF: BRATISLAVA 176, BRATISLAVA 320 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000460  001.3 OF 003 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (U) Within the SMER (Direction)-led coalition government, 
Minister of Culture Marek Madaric has spearheaded an 
unprecedentedly prolific legislative agenda for the Ministry of 
Culture, introducing and passing eight laws during his tenure. 
Several of the laws, including the "press law" (ref: Bratislava 
176) and the "language law," (ref: Bratislava 320) have 
attracted significant international attention and attest to 
Madaric's strength within SMER and political ambitions.  Other 
laws have received less attention but are critical to the future 
of public (state?) media in Slovakia and to understanding SMER's 
strategy to control public information and to ensure that the 
right people benefit in the process.  Although Madaric is the 
public face of these changes, the driving force behind them is 
PM Fico's oft-stated belief that the media acts as part of the 
opposition and his antiquated view (seemingly shared by most GOS 
officials) that the media is a tool of the state, not an 
independent source of information for the public.  End Summary. 
 
AN UNLIKELY POWER MINISTRY: CULTURE 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) The Slovak Ministry of Culture is tasked with 
coordinating government media policy.  The media department and 
the legislative department are responsible for drafting all laws 
concerning the media environment.  Natasa Slavikova, Director of 
the Media Department, proudly told us that the Ministry has 
prepared eight media acts that were passed in the Slovak 
National Council since this government came to power, dwarfing 
the efforts of previous governments.  Slavikova attributes this 
to Minister Marek Madaric, who plays a very important and active 
role in this process, and enjoys a powerful position in the 
coalition.  Madaric normally appears at PM Fico's right hand 
during public events and while many would argue that Deputy 
Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Robert Kalinak may be 
more powerful within the SMER party few would dispute that 
Madaric is personally closer to Fico.  Slavikova stressed that 
the ministry has focused on important issues in the media field 
which were not previously covered by legislation (such as the 
Audiovisual Fund Act) or where valid legislation existed from a 
previous regime (such as the Press Act).  Critics would argue 
that Madaric's ministry is waging a full assault on western 
standards of media freedom reminiscent of the communist era.  A 
long time associate of Madaric says of him "he's a little bit 
nationalist and a lot fascist." 
 
¶3. (U) All three public media outlets in Slovakia (TV-STV, 
Radio-SRo, Wire-TASR) are rooted in Communist Czechoslovak media 
institutions which were transformed into Slovak public entities 
after the Czech/Slovak split. The institutions still suffer from 
institutional hangovers regarding the division of resources and 
technology.  All three institutions receive state funding and 
have political nominees at their head.  All three are obliged by 
law "to provide information as a public service to citizens." As 
is the case all over Europe, the debate continues on the proper 
balance of state funding versus state interference for public 
media. 
 
¶4. (U) Two pieces of newly passed legislation will have a large 
impact on the financing of public media in Slovakia.  The first 
is the act on broadcast fees.  Public media in Slovakia have 
three sources of income;  a broadcast tax for public service, 
advertising, and direct state budget support through the Culture 
Ministry.  The act on broadcast fees introduces new rules for 
the collection of the broadcast tax for public service.  The new 
rules pass the responsibility for paying the broadcast tax to 
individual citizens, who should pay these fees in conjunction 
with their electricity bill.  Agency heads bemoan the fact that 
many households were exempted from the tax (pensioners for 
example) and accountability is impossible so many Slovaks do not 
pay the tax whether due to intentional avoidance or ignorance. 
 
¶5. (U) The second law of note for public media financing is the 
so-called "audiovisual law."  Among a broad swath of issues 
related to film, multimedia, and artistic competencies in 
Slovakia, there are provisions that officially limit the amount 
of advertising time that public media institutions can offer. In 
the case of Slovak Radio, the limit is 3% of broadcast time, and 
in the case of Slovak Television, the limit is 2.5% of broadcast 
time not to exceed 8 minutes per hour.  The rationale for these 
decisions can be debated, but the impact is clear: less 
advertising time equals less revenue.  With two of their three 
primary revenue streams hobbled SRo and STV are left to rely 
upon their third stream, the Ministry of Culture, to stay alive. 
 
POLITICS IN PUBLIC MEDIA 
------------------------ 
 
¶6. (U) This budget shift occurred as Madaric began implementing 
new amendments to existing laws governing the relationship 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000460  002.3 OF 003 
 
 
between the state and public media.  Madaric charged his people 
to negotiate new terms of direct budget support for STV and SRo. 
 The "negotiation" has been overseen by the respective 
television and radio councils; which are both 15 member bodies 
appointed by Parliament for four year terms on a rolling basis. 
(Note: the newest member of the STV council voted through 
Parliament is Peter Kubica, a regional spokesman for SNS, a 
member of "Matica Slovenska" (a nationalist cultural 
organization), and a poet known for his ballads to Jozef Tiso, 
leader of the WWII fascist Slovak Republic. Madaric justifies 
the need for a new mechanism citing long standing fiscal 
problems of public media institutions and the dearth of Slovak 
heritage/language material produced in television and film today 
in Slovakia.  By tying public monies directly to programming 
priorities the ministry can control what kind of new programming 
is undertaken (and who gets the contracts to produce it).  The 
monies cannot be used for news services, only original 
entertainment and educational programming.  STV has signed on 
the dotted line and will receive some 10 million euros in 
programming funds next year alone.  SRo has refused to conclude 
the negotiations in what has become a public spat between SRo's 
director and Minister Madaric himself.  The crux of the dispute 
is deciding who determines the priority allocation of public 
funds to SRo.  SRo Director Zemkova believes that SRo's critical 
needs are in technical modernization whereas Minister Madaric, 
who spearheads SMER's efforts to attract SNS's nationalist 
voters, believes more resources need to be allocated to Slovak 
cultural programming. 
 
¶7. (U) Several recent incidents at STV illustrate that political 
interference in programming is alive and well at Slovak 
television.  For example, STV director Stephan Niznansky 
recently banned the broadcasting of an investigative report on 
so-called "social enterprises."  The STV report was a critical 
story about a social enterprise subsidized by the Labor Ministry 
to the tune of EUR 3.3 million.  According to Katarina Zackova, 
the director of the program that was scheduled for broadcast, 
Niznansky's stance was not motivated by ties to the political 
forces that were to be exposed or because the scandal was so 
large (to the contrary, most viewers would hardly blink at such 
small potatoes corruption in Slovakia these days) but because he 
did not want the story to be broken at STV.  He is reinforcing 
the perception that hard, investigative journalism will not be 
welcome at STV.  After the story of the attempted censorship 
broke in the press, Niznansky backed down and the program was 
aired.  Niznansky was later quoted as saying that the producers 
had better learn who the director was, or he would have to seek 
remedy in the labor code. 
 
¶8. (U) Niznansky is a former Communist party member with close 
ties to ruling coalition minority party HZDS leader and former 
Prime Minister Meciar.  He has been quoted as saying that "there 
was no censorship of media during communist times in Slovakia." 
Irrespective of his personal politics and editorial approach, no 
one can envy him his current position. Years of mismanagement 
have put STV deep into the red, and without state monies the 
enterprise would quickly become insolvent.  This cripples its 
ability to create any new programming and further alienates its 
audience.  One-time influxes of cash from the privatization of 
STV physical resources (primarily land) stemmed the tide for 
some years but the cannibalization and cuts appear complete, and 
what is left is an uncompetitive television network deep in 
debt.  Niznansky had little choice but to sign the ministry's 
deal with the devil. 
 
¶9. (U) By contrast, Slovak Radio is widely respected as one of 
the most reliable news organizations in Slovakia.  It operates 
six channels of which only one, Radio Slovakia International, is 
funded by state subsidy.  It has relied heavily on the broadcast 
tax (80% of budget) to cover its operational expenses and hence 
has greater political autonomy.  Due to the decrease in revenue 
the director of SRo, Miloslava Zemkova, has chosen to cut staff 
and programming rather than "go into debt and increase our 
political dependence."  Zemkova was appointed to a four year 
term under a SRo Council that was dominated by the previous 
Dzurinda government. She will likely pay for her perceived 
political insubordination to the current administration as 
insiders report she stands little chance of surviving the next 
meeting of the now SMER coalition dominated Council.  The 
council has the authority to appoint and dismiss the SRo 
director.  It would appear that by turning the financial screws 
on "public" media in Slovakia the current Culture Minister is 
forcing its dependence on the "state." 
 
AND MONEY TO BE MADE 
-------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) Madaric has also announced a plan to co-locate all three 
public media institutions in one mega complex in Bratislava. 
While theoretically sensible on a cost basis the oft repeated 
rumor in Bratislava is that the real motivation is a high stakes 
real estate swap.  The story goes that the second largest 
commercial broadcaster in Slovakia, TV JoJ, would receive a cut 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000460  003.3 OF 003 
 
 
rate deal on STV's current studios allowing them to vacate their 
studios on the exclusive Koliba hill in Bratislava.  JoJ is 
owned by the financial group J&T, long believed to be the major 
money behind SMER.  Their studios just happen to be adjacent to 
the old Slovak national film studios which were sold in a shady 
privatization deal to the children of Vladimir Meciar.  If, by 
coincidence, Meciar's kids could also get their hands on TV 
JoJ's current studios, they would have a huge parcel of land 
available for development in one of Bratislava's most desirable 
locations.  Coincidentally, the airing of an STV investigative 
documentary on the privatization of the Slovak national film 
studios was recently postponed due to "scheduling conflicts." 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11. (U) Self-proclaimed "shadow Culture Minister," opposition 
parliamentarian Magdalena Vasaryova of SDKU, claims that SMER 
(particularly PM Fico) believes the government of authoritarian 
former Prime Minister Meciar was brought down by the Slovak 
media and wants to be well insulated against any attack from 
that front.  She told us that this fear underpins Fico's and 
Madaric's efforts to nationalize public media, as well as their 
campaign to vilify the media in general.  We tend to agree, and 
expect such efforts to intensify in this election year.  These 
tendencies, coupled with a rise in corruption, cronyism and 
nationalism, are creating a perfect storm that threatens the 
independence of media in Slovakia. 
EDDINS