MEDIA, MADARIC, AND MOOLAH

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
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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
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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
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6. (U) This budget shift occurred as Madaric began implementing
new amendments to existing laws governing the relationship

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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
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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

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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
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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