LIAR, LIAR, PRESS CONSPIRE

UNCLAS BRATISLAVA 000519

SIPDIS

EUR/CE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KPAO LO
SUBJECT: LIAR, LIAR, PRESS CONSPIRE


1. (SBU) Summary. PM Robert Fico convened an impromptu press
conference on December 10 to vilify the press for pursuing a
story about Fico's family connections to an emerging scandal
involving the Slovak land fund (septel to follow). PM Fico
claimed during the press conference that all the major dailies
in Slovakia were conspiring against him and had met privately to
discuss strategy and consolidate editorial lines. The Slovak
publishers' association responded with their strongest public
critique to date, with all major dailies prominently printing on
December 12 an editorial titled `Prime Minister Fico Lies.' The
response got little play, and although Fico's emotional,
eight-minute press conference struck us as histrionic, even
those Slovaks who deplore Fico's war against the media tell us
that, in his ongoing war with the press that Fico has won this
round. End Summary.

The Story:


2. (SBU) The daily `SME' sent a letter to the regional court in
Topol'cany (Fico's home town) requesting a review of the court
files related to Fico's deceased father's estate. SME believed
that the inheritance files might prove a familial link between
PM Fico and the wife of the recently sacked director of the
Slovak land fund (see septel). PM Fico has been sailing through
many a coalition kerfluffle on corruption and nepotism by
distancing himself from minority coalition members SNS and HZDS.
This story would has the potential to demonstrate that PM Fico
may also be engaged in similar practices.

The Reaction:


3. (U) Surprisingly, an employee at the regional court in
Fico's home town alerted him to the request. Hours later Fico
called an impromptu press conference during which he compared
the Slovak press to pigs and hyenas, irrefutably more insulting
in the Slovak lexicon than the standard `idiots' he is wont to
deploy. During the press conference PM Fico also referred to an
alleged meeting of the publishers of all Slovak dailies during
which they supposedly plotted `to print the same stories with
the same headlines' in relation to the story. Fico played the
family card heavily during the press conference, lamenting in a
quavering voice that `I am your target and not my dead father,
not my dead grandfather, and not my son or mother.' This
sentiment (and the victimhood) plays well in conservative,
family-conscious Slovakia. SME was doing its job, but our
informal polling of `Jozef Slovak' suggests that there is
widespread sympathy for Fico for the perceived attack on his
relatives.

The Reality:


4. (U) While SME may have misconstrued the exact relationship
between PM Fico and certain members of the Slovak Land Fund
(cousin versus niece versus second cousin),there is no denying
that they hit a sensitive nerve in making the connection.
Slovak public officials, and perhaps even the general Slovak
public, appear to be unprepared for the kind of embarrassing
investigative journalism that affects even small towns (like
Bratislava). But, thanks (in part, at least) to the
government's relentless messaging--the Slovak media is
unethical, biased, dishonest and a tool of the political
opposition--many in the public view the media with a jaundiced
eye.

Comment:


5. (SBU) Fico has lashed out at the media once again in order to
shift the story from the ongoing corrupt practices of his
administration to the `shadowy' opposition figure he has painted
in media ownership. In a public appearance before economists
and businessmen on December 14 organized by business daily
`Hospodarske Noviny,' Fico responded to a closing question on
media relations by asserting that `the Slovak press has no
impact on public opinion.' Unfortunately, he is largely right.
`Jozef Slovak has yet to recognize the fundamental threat to his
freedoms that Fico's anti-media campaign poses. Fico may not
have noticed the shocked expressions of every businessman in the
room when he made those comments, however. And he certainly has
not noticed that the entire media establishment (even those TV
companies benefiting from his lucrative patronage) is growing
more unified in the face of his attacks.

BALL