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Viewing cable 08BRATISLAVA164, FICO GETS HIS PRESS LAW AND LISBON TREATY TOO

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08BRATISLAVA164 2008-04-10 17:18 2011-08-26 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Bratislava
VZCZCXRO9015
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSL #0164/01 1011718
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101718Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1659
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0441
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000164 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NCE, DRL, EUR/RPM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM LO
SUBJECT: FICO GETS HIS PRESS LAW AND LISBON TREATY TOO 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  The Slovak Parliament passed the ruling 
coalition's media law bill April 9; the bill will now be 
submitted to President Gasparovic for signing.  The 
controversial "right to reply" remains largely unchanged 
despite indications over the past week from the coalition and 
the opposition SMK party that the final bill draft would be 
amended to meet European standards.  On the following 
morning, SMK Chairman Pal Csaky announced that his party 
would break ranks with the opposition and vote for the Lisbon 
Treaty, to which the opposition had linked changes in the 
press law, despite securing no concessions on the media law 
and eventually voting against it.  Csaky acknowledged rumors 
that the coalition had promised SMK that it would 
significantly change elements of its upcoming education bill 
relating to Hungarian-language instruction.  Parliament 
subsequently ratified the EU Lisbon Treaty on April 10, by a 
vote of 103-6.  SMK voted with the coalition while most SDKU 
and KDH members abstained.  SMK's negotiations on the press 
bill and Lisbon not only threaten to destroy opposition unity 
but also hint at a possible realignment in Slovak politics if 
Smer and SMK continue cooperating on other issues.  End 
Summary. 
 
The Law 
------- 
 
2. (SBU) The media law, approved by parliament along 
coalition lines, contains no substantive changes to the 
revised draft submitted by MP Jan Podmanicky (Smer) in early 
March.  While the earlier Podmanicky modifications eliminated 
harmful provisions that made the Ministry of Culture the 
arbiter of press violations, the final bill hews closely to 
the original "right to reply" language proposed by Prime 
Minister Robert Fico.  According to Article 8, paragraph 1, 
publishers will be required to print responses to any 
"statement of fact that impinges on the honor, dignity, or 
privacy of a natural person, or the name of good reputation 
of a legal entity."  The responses will have to be printed on 
the same page and space as the original articles, and must be 
printed regardless of whether the original statement was 
factually correct.  Journalists and publishers believe the 
law will place them in a position where they are forced to 
print official responses by government officials and others 
on a near-daily basis, with no chance for counter-response. 
In a possible sign of things to come, Fico has penned several 
"open letters" to newspapers over the past two weeks, 
criticizing journalists for their coverage of the recent 
visit by the Russian Prime Minister, his meeting with Gerhard 
Schroeder, and other matters.  One of these letters pointed 
out specific individuals for criticism. 
 
 
SMK Sells Out 
------------- 
 
3. (SBU) Until shortly before the vote, many believed it 
would be possible for the opposition to leverage Fico to 
modify "right to reply" provisions in exchange for promises 
to support the EU Lisbon Treaty, which requires a 60 percent 
majority (90 votes) in parliament. Yet from the time the 
press law/Lisbon Treaty connection emerged in January, Fico 
recognized that, among the opposition parties, the Lisbon 
Treaty meant the most to SMK while the press law meant the 
least.  In early February, Fico apparently offered Csaky a 
deal in which he agreed to substantially modify 
Hungarian-sensitive sections in the upcoming education bill, 
plus make limited changes to the press law, on the condition 
that Csaky could induce SDKU to vote for the press law.  SDKU 
Chairman Dzurinda didn't budge, and Fico eventually decided 
in mid-March to make unilateral concessions on removing the 
role of the Ministry of Culture to impose speech fines, which 
was never a Smer priority.  The Smer offer to SMK regarding 
the education bill stayed on the table. 
 
4. (SBU) Over the past week, SMK maintained that it was 
negotiating with Smer on the press bill but it appears clear 
from our conversations with various SMK leaders that they 
decided several days before the final vote to accept Smer's 
offer on the education bill (and perhaps other matters) in 
exchange for the Lisbon vote.  SMK MP and Human Rights 
Committee Chairman Laszlo Nagy assured Poloff on April 7 that 
he believed the coalition had committed to make changes which 
would allow SMK to vote for the Lisbon Treaty.  Early April 
9, as it became clearer that no further changes on the "right 
to reply" were likely to be forthcoming, SMK MP Zsolt Simon 
told Poloff that, "As I understand it, right to reply wasn't 
really one of the main issues for publishers or for the 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000164  002 OF 002 
 
 
OSCE." He added that, "the Slovak constitution protects the 
honor and dignity of the individual, so we have to respect 
that" in the press law. (Comment: Simon's effort to portray 
the bill in a more positive light was a strong indication of 
SMK's impending break with the rest of the opposition. That 
move was all but confirmed by Pal Csaky's appearance on 
Slovak television that evening, when he indicated that the 
law had improved somewhat and that his party had not yet 
decided its stance on the Lisbon Treaty. End comment.)  There 
is no evidence of any acrimonious debate within SMK on the 
course it chose to follow. 
 
 
Opposition Crushed 
------------------ 
 
5. (SBU) SDKU and KDH reacted angrily to SMK's decision to 
jump ship on the Lisbon Treaty, suggesting strongly that it 
marked the end of a unified opposition.  KDH Chairman Pavol 
Hrusovsky said, "SMK has broken its promise.  I don't know 
how to cooperate further with a party that has openly 
supported the opposition."  Hrusovsky added that there are 
now two opposition parties in parliament - KDH and SDKU. 
SDKU Chairman Dzurinda was somewhat less emotional in his 
language, perhaps in part to preserve SMK support for its 
presidential candidate, Iveta Radicova.  Dzurinda bemoaned 
that the opposition could have forced the governing coalition 
to make more changes if it had stayed united.  He also 
accused Csaky of personally lying to him, saying "We are in 
old Meciar times here....the new anti-democratic steamroller 
is here."  It is difficult to imagine how the three parties 
will be able to work together constructively in the near 
future. 
 
 
New Partners? 
------------- 
 
6. (SBU) In addition to effectively destroying opposition 
unity by countering Dzurinda's press bill-Lisbon Treaty 
gambit with his education bill-Lisbon Treaty strategy, Fico 
has also set up the possibility of future cooperation between 
Smer and SMK.  By negotiating directly with SMK on the press 
bill, education bill, and several other matters, Fico has 
been able to sideline coalition partner SNS while alleviating 
some of its tensions with HZDS.  Some prominent figures 
within Smer have told us that they are more comfortable 
working with SMK than with SNS or HZDS.  With Smer voter 
preferences over 40 percent, a future Smer-SMK governing 
coalition no longer seems beyond the realm of possibility. 
It is questionable how far this relationship could develop, 
however, since a portion of Smer's leadership and voter base 
is highly nationalistic in character and would object to 
strong partnership with the ethnic Hungarian party. 
OBSITNIK