13 Feb 2012Beata BalogováPolitics & Society
A SLOVAK court’s decision to block publication of an unfinished book about alleged high-level political corruption being written by investigative journalist Tom Nicholson, a former editor-in-chief of this newspaper, has been described by critics as censorship.
A SLOVAK court’s decision to block publication of an unfinished book about alleged high-level political corruption being written by investigative journalist Tom Nicholson, a former editor-in-chief of this newspaper, has been described by critics as censorship.
The presiding judge, Branislav Král, argued that he had weighed only two rights in reaching his judgement: the plaintiff’s right to protection of his person; and Nicholson’s right to free expression.
Prime Minister Iveta Radičová called the court’s decision a violation of the right to free speech. “It [the book] is not Mein Kampf,” Radičová said.
“I strongly object to [the ruling], but I cannot do anything more so as not to interfere in the independence of the courts.”
Petit Press director Alexej Fulmek and the head of the International Press Institute’s Slovak branch, Pavol Múdry, both described the court’s decision as censorship.
Múdry told The Slovak Spectator that the court’s decision in fact represented “preventive censorship, since the book has not yet been published and no one except the author knows what is in it”.
“This is how totalitarian regimes proceed,” Múdry continued. “Suspicions of large-scale corruption are in question and public funds are involved. In such a case the public interest must be placed above the protection of the reputation of an individual, whoever that person is.”
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