SLOVAKIA: CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR DEFAMATION TO STAY ON THE BOOKS.(Brief Article)

IPR Strategic Business Information Database, November, 2001

The parliament rejected by a vote of 56 to 55, with one abstention, an amendment to the Penal Code that would have abolished a provision related to the defamation of the head of state, the parliament, the Constitutional Court, and the government, CTK and AP reported. The amendment was submitted by deputy Tomas Galbavy of the Slovak Democratic Coalition.

Its rejection means that the prosecution of journalist Ales Kratky of the daily "Novy cas" will proceed. Kratky wrote that President Rudolf Schuster's State of the Nation speech earlier this year revealed "the signs of his spiritual incapability to head the state," and described him as an "arrogant egomaniac." The Vienna-based International Press Institute has sent a letter to Schuster, urging him to withdraw the...