MEDIA AND PR
On sale now
NEWS
Drugs bust goes awry
A Czech truck driver spent
Christmas in a Turkish
prison cell after a bungled
sting operation involving
the Slovak police.
pg 2
Making language legal
The deputy prime minister
for human rights and na-
tional minorities, Rudolf
Chmel, spoke to the Slovak
Spectator about his work
redrafting language laws
and addressing issues fa-
cing Roma citizens.
pg 3
OPINION
Misguided duty
SMK leader József Berényi's
application for Hungarian
citizenship poses more
questions than it answers
about how Slovakia's eth-
nic Hungarians are repres-
ented.
BUSINESS FOCUS
pg 5
Tweeting journalists
Social media, most signific-
antly Facebook and Twitter,
are changing the way
journalists do their job and
the way news is generated
and delivered.
pg 6
Analogue TV to end
Digital TV will replace ana-
logue terrestrial broadcasts
by the end of 2012, but there
are some complaints about
insufficient information
during the transition.
pg 7
CULTURE
Citizens of the world
“When we know many
foreign languages we be-
come citizens of the
world," Georges Lemieux,
chargé d’affaires of the Ca-
nadian Embassy, told
Zvolen students at a recent
discussion.
pg 11
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Vol. 17, No. 1 Monday, January 10, 2011 - Sunday, January 16, 2011
Epiphany is the end of holiday season for Slovaks. According to tradition, the legendary "three kings" visit Slovak
households to bring their wishes to families. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on that day.
RTVS arrives;
Nižňanský leaves
THE CONTOURS of Slovakia’s huge
new public broadcaster are now
emerging from the remains of its
predecessors, Slovak Radio (SRo)
and Slovak Television (STV), as part
of what the country’s culture minis-
ter has called a substantial reform of
the public media in Slovakia. The
legislation to create Radio and Tele-
vision of Slovakia (RTVS) came into
force on January 1, 2011. President
Ivan Gašparovič vetoed it twice, but
parliament overrode his objections.
RTVS now has an interim dir-
ector in the form of Miloslava
Zemková, who was previously the
Steady as she goes, say economists
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
NO OMINOUS economic predic-
tions for Slovakia are being offered
by market watchers for 2011. A
slight slowdown in the economic
growth rate from last year, a mod-
erate improvement – but no mir-
HUF 275.95
acles – in the job market, lower pub-
JPY 108.92
lic spending and other effects of
PLN 3.85
fiscal consolidation are likely to be
USD 1.30
the main characteristics of 2011, ac-
cording to the analysts, who re-
main rather cautious about bold
forecasts. They agree that this year
might provide fertile soil for eco-
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
director of SRo. Her deputies Ľuboš
Machaj, formerly SRo programme
director, and Daniela Vašinová,
formerly financial director of SRo,
will manage television and radio re-
spectively. The interim manage-
ment will now produce a provision-
al budget and handle all the admin-
istrative tasks related to the merger
of the two broadcasters.
nomic reforms, though the auster-
ity measures intended to restore
the public finances may dampen re-
formers’ zeal.
Nevertheless, Slovakia will con-
tinue depending on the vigour of its
largest trading partners and on
whether these can supply sufficient
demand. This is because the eco-
nomy in 2011 will be propelled by
foreign demand, Poštová Banka
analyst Eva Sadovská told The Slov-
ak Spectator.
Domestic demand might be
somewhat stronger than in 2010 but
unemployment will remain relat-
ively high, and this will be reflected
in consumer behaviour, she added.
“There is a positive aspect as
well: unemployment will show a
Photo: TASR
“During this transition period
we have to carry out a large number
of administrative and legal steps
linked to the establishment of the
institution since it is not emerging
on a green field but as a result of the
merger of two dissolved
institutions,” Zemková told SRo on
January 1. “It means that the new
institution is taking over all the ob-
ligations, receivables, legal status,
contracts, contractual relations and
all the employees, thus it is a suc-
cessor of those two institutions.”
See RTVS pg 2
declining tendency, albeit gradual
and slow,” Sadovská said. “But it
will not return to pre-crisis levels;
at least three to five years will be
necessary.”
What will really slow the eco-
nomy is the trumpeted consolida-
tion of public finances, she said.
The economy should still continue
to grow by more than 3 percent, a
rate at which the economy is still
able to create new jobs, according
to Sadovská.
The central bank expects eco-
nomic growth to be 3 percent this
year, and the Finance Ministry’s
prediction is 3.3 percent growth,
compared to last year’s 4 percent.
See ECON pg 4
FOCUS
of this issue
Privatisation
returns to
the agenda
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
THE CHANGE of drivers at the wheel of
government in July re-opened the issue of
privatisation in Slovakia. Compared to the
negative attitude of former prime minister
Robert Fico, the Iveta Radičová govern-
ment wants to sell stakes held by the state
in selected companies. But in its four-year
programme it has excluded privatisation of
what it calls strategic companies.
Even though any final decision has yet
to be made, analysts, experts and politi-
cians are already calling for the proceeds
from privatisation to be used to patch up
holes in the old-age pension saving scheme
and in the general government budget.
Many analysts support the privatisa-
tion plans of the Radičová government.
“Basically there is no reason for the
state to own any stakes in companies
whose main activity is the sale of services
which can be secured by the private
sphere,” Juraj Karpiš, analyst with the In-
stitute of Economic and Social Studies
(INESS) told The Slovak Spectator. “Mak-
ing business in these segments [heating,
telecommunications, transport, etc.] does
not belong among the basic functions of
the state.”
See SALE pg 4
Ahead: a year
of 'everyday
politics'
BY MICHAELA TERENZANI
Spectator staff
IN CONTRAST with last year, 2011 is not
expected to be studded with particular
events that have the potential to become
political or media spectacles – or at least
that is what political observers are fore-
casting based on what they see on the hori-
zon of the dawning new year. This does not
mean, however, that some significant
political changes are not in the pipeline.
The first thing that pops up when look-
ing back at 2010 is the parliamentary elec-
tion in June that caused a significant
power change in Slovakia’s top political
posts. And if the past year from its very be-
ginning could be earmarked as “the year of
elections”, then 2011 could be character-
ised as the year of election follow-through
and the initiation of reforms that the
centre-right political parties promised to
enact after they took power from the coali-
tion government led by Robert Fico.
See 2011 pg 3
2 January 10 – January 16, 2011
Interior Ministry beefs up policing
THE INTERIOR Ministry has
introduced a new system for
protecting public order in
areas suffering from elevated
crime levels. The SITA news-
wire reported that the sys-
tem, begun on January 1, is
“directed primarily at Roma
settlements that have had a
high number of criminal of-
fences and infringements of
peaceful coexistence”.
The ministry will signific-
antly strengthen special po-
lice units in two phases, in
January and in March. The
number of police officers in
motorised patrols will rise by
175 and the number of SWAT
team members will rise by 25
in regions with elevated crime
rates – Prešov, Košice and
Banská Bystrica, SITA wrote.
In Prešov Region, 15 more
Roma security specialists will
work in Roma communities
fighting crime and loan-
sharking.
The ministry stated that
under the new system police
officers who in the past spent
time in their offices will now
be deployed on the streets.
Court rules on Kotleba leaflet case
A BANSKÁ Bystrica district
court has stopped further
criminal prosecution of
Marián Kotleba, the leader of
the People’s Party - Our Slov-
akia (ĽSNS) and former leader
of the far-right organisation
Slovenská Pospolitosť, in a
case involving text written
in election leaflets in 2009,
the SITA newswire reported.
The prosecutor has ap-
pealed the court’s verdict
and it will be reviewed by the
Banská Bystrica Regional
Court, SITA wrote.
The prosecutor filed the
charges against Kotleba for
text in an election leaflet dis-
tributed in 2009, when Ko-
tleba ran for the post of pres-
PM, FM divvy up EU affairs
PRIME Minister Iveta
Radičová and Foreign Min-
ister Mikuláš Dzurinda have
agreed on the division of de-
cision-making powers
between their offices on EU-
related matters. Under the
new arrangement, the EU
agenda will be handled at
two levels within the cabin-
et, the SITA newswire re-
ported.
Top-level political de-
cisions will be coordinated
by the prime minister and
her office and other issues to
be considered at the level of
state secretaries and general
directors will be coordinated
by the Foreign Affairs Min-
istry, including tasks such
as incorporation of EU direct-
ives, regulations and similar
undertakings.
The original draft stat-
utes for the Ministerial
Mayors of towns and vil-
lages which have had prob-
lems in the past said, accord-
ing to the Sme daily, that
they welcome the intensi-
fied police activity but doubt
whether repressive meas-
ures will be the appropriate
solution unless legislative
changes are also made.
In Ostrovany, a municip-
ality divided by a wall that
separates a Roma settlement
from the rest of the village,
the number of petty crimes,
especially thefts, has de-
creased but the mayor, Cyril
Revák, believes this is due to
the wall rather than because
of an increased number of
motorised police patrols.
The municipal council of
Ostrovany is now consider-
ing extending the
150-metre-long wall, Sme
wrote.
The Ostrovany wall was
featured in news reports
shortly before Christmas
when the word “Prepáčte”
(Sorry), written in large let-
ters by an unknown author,
appeared on the wall.
ident of Banská Bystrica Self-
Governing Region. In the
leaflet Kotleba wrote that he
would “eliminate unfair ad-
vantages for not only the
Gypsy parasites”. The pro-
secutor claimed that Kotleba
had committed a criminal of-
fence by defaming a nation,
race or religion.
According to a blog pos-
ted by Slovenská Pospolitosť,
the court wrote in its ruling
that the prosecution’s case
was unjustified and the file
contained no evidence prov-
ing that a criminal offence
had been committed.
“I consider the evidence
sufficient,” the prosecutor
told SITA.
Council for EU Affairs, which
the Foreign Affairs Ministry
had sent for interdepart-
mental review, proposed a
model under which the
prime minister would not
have had the right to vote,
reportedly causing discord
between Radičová and
Dzurinda. According to Rado
Baťo, Radičová’s spokesman,
the division of responsibilit-
ies is based on an agreement
between the two politicians.
Baťo explained to SITA
that the need to change the
model of dealing with EU is-
sues at cabinet level surfaced
because Slovakia’s current
cabinet does not have a
deputy prime minister dir-
ectly responsible for
European affairs.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
NEWS
Bungled drugs bust
lands driver in prison
ternational anti-drugs opera- rying acetic anhydride, a drugs was estimated at about
BY MICHAELA tion which went awry, spoil- chemical used to refine €16.6 million.
TERENZANI ing the Christmas of the morphine into heroin. Ac- Zdeněk Pekara, the driver
Spectator staff Czech truck driver, who was cording to the Interior Min- who unwittingly drove the
arrested by police in Turkey. istry, the substance had been substance across Europe to
Following Czech authorities’ stolen by an international Turkey, was arrested upon his
ONE YEAR after a Slovak cit- demands for an explanation drugs gang from a factory in arrival at an Istanbul ware-
izen unwittingly carried ex- from Slovakia, Slovak police Europe and could have helped house on December 24 and
plosives aboard a plane from have tried to blame their produce some 400 kilograms only released after several
Poprad to Dublin following a Turkish counterparts. of heroine, which the gang days, once the circumstances
police exercise went wrong, The international anti- was planning to sell back to had been explained.
the Slovak authorities have drugs sting was launched on European countries including “Imagine you are going to
again found themselves fa- December 10, 2010. A Czech Slovakia. unload the cargo, you arrive at
cing international criticism truck set off from a ware- The ministry said such an the customs office and there
after a failed operation landed house in Dunajská Streda, amount would constitute 50 people jump on you,”
an innocent truck driver in a loaded with what the driver around 10 million doses of Pekara said, as quoted by the
Turkish prison. believed were 17 tonnes of dis- heroin, sufficient to supply Aktualne.sk news server.
This time it was not a infectant. 10,000 drug users for a year.
training exercise but an in- In fact, the truck was car- The street price of the final See AWRY pg 9
RTVS: No major reshuffles in pipeline
Continued from pg 1
The interim management said that
there are no major reshuffles in the
pipeline, but nevertheless some per-
sonnel changes are due within Slovak
Television.
The merger was proposed by Culture
Minister Daniel Krajcer to resolve what
he called the catastrophic financial
situation within STV. Krajcer said that
the creation of RTVS should, in just the
first year of its existence, save the state
budget €1.65 million. The overall debt of
STV for next year is expected to reach
€36 million.
Krajcer also called the merger the
first step in the reform of the public me-
dia in Slovakia, which should last about
three years and involve a change in its
financing. As of 2012, the public broad-
casters will no longer receive income
from so-called concessionary fees paid
by all electricity consumers in Slovakia. Acting RTVS director Miloslava Zemková took over at STV. Photo: Sme - V. Šimíček
The reform will culminate with the two
broadcasters moving into a single build- both broadcasters, will be in place until Meanwhile, the local media has re-
ing. the new RTVS boss shapes the new ported that Nižňanský signed some
Zemková, appointed by Speaker of budget and gets it approved by the large contracts in December on behalf
Parliament Richard Sulík, will act as in- 9-member RTVS Council. of STV, just before leaving office.
terim director until the first regular dir- Zemková’s right-hand man Machaj Machaj confirmed that these deals
ector of RTVS is appointed by the Slovak confirmed on January 4 that the televi- would be analysed.
Parliament. Sulík explained his choice sion division will experience some reor- Nižňanský’s actions as director had
of Zemková by saying that SRo under ganisation, but that no personnel long evoked concern among some me-
her had been better managed than STV changes are expected at Slovak Radio. Re- dia professionals and even though Kra-
under Štefan Nižňanský, who has now ferring to his choices for the replacement jcer stressed last year that the merger
left the organisation, the SITA news- management team at the television divi- was not about removing Nižňanský
wire wrote. sion, Machaj said he would work with from his position, the parties of the rul-
Selection of the permanent new dir- people he could trust. ing coalition have never hidden their
ector is not expected to be an easy under- However, he excluded any significant hostility towards him. Representatives
taking. Zemková has said she considers changes to the TV programme schedule of other Slovak media outlets have spec-
discussion about her eventual candidacy and said that only programmes that are ulated that the public-service television
to be preliminary. strictly linked to the temporary budget broadcaster was on the verge of collapse.
The parliamentary committee for might be affected. The former management of STV
culture and media will publish a call for Zemková described the period that even sued some journalists over reports
candidates by January 10 via RTVS pro- the public broadcasters now face as “a about its financial situation. Zemková
grammes and the website of the Slovak demanding austerity period, which will suggested that RTVS would withdraw
Parliament. Candidates will have 15 days last until the joint budget is approved”. some of the lawsuits.
to submit their applications. She also noted that her deputy Machaj is “We do not intend to swamp pro-
Among the selection criteria for the not entitled to sign contracts as this is secution bodies and the courts with
director of the new broadcaster are a uni- something which only she has been giv- senseless proceedings against freely
versity education and at least five years of en the authority to do. expressed opinion,” she said.
experience in top management. The par- According to Zemková, analysis of ex- Krajcer’s plan was criticised by
liamentary media committee will inter- isting contracts will follow soon after the those concerned that merging the fin-
view candidates and submit recommend- administrative tasks linked to the estab- ancially troubled STV with the relat-
ations to parliament so that deputies can lishment of RTVS are wrapped up. ively healthy SRo would negatively af-
select the new director via a public vote, “I will not carry out and I could not fect the public-service radio stations
possibly in February. The same selection carry out my own systemic concept of the under SRo’s wing. Media experts,
procedure will apply to members of the operation of the new institution because however, have stated that the situation
top body of the new broadcaster, the RTVS as an interim director I do not have the in STV had become untenable and had
Council, according to SITA. tools for that – only the newly elected dir- called for some kind of action, though
The provisional budget, set at one- ector-general will be able to create some would have preferred a much
twelfth of the combined 2011 budgets of those,” Zemková said as quoted by SITA. slower pace.

Making language legal
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
ONCE you fasten one button
on your vest incorrectly, then
your whole vest is obviously
buttoned-up wrong, said
Rudolf Chmel, Slovakia's
deputy prime minister for
human rights and national
minorities, in describing the
tensions that have surrounded
Slovakia’s State Language Act.
His office began officially
working with stronger powers
on November 1 and among its
first legislative initiatives is
an amendment to the law on
minority languages which
was presented for public dis-
cussion shortly before the end
of 2010. The right to use one’s
mother tongue as well as the
regularly erupting conflicts
between Slovaks and ethnic
Hungarians and the problems
of socially-excluded Roma
communities were among the
topics Chmel spoke about
with The Slovak Spectator just
before the Christmas holidays.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):
The State Language Act,
which caused much tension
between Hungarians and
Slovaks, was recently
amended. How did you per-
ceive the emergence of the
problem?
Rudolf Chmel (RCh): The
State Language Act emerged
as a problem when it was first
passed by the Vladimír Mečiar
government in 1995 because it
had an evident anti-minority,
and mainly anti-Hungarian,
tone to it, including the sanc-
tions. But the pre-history of
the situation goes back to the
beginning of 1990s when cer-
tain nationalists came up
with idea of protection of the
state language, as if somebody
was still trying to take it away
from us. Generally, Slovaks
still seem to be living in the
19th century, in the Romantic
era, when the language
needed to be fought for, or
later when Magyarisation was
a part of the state policies. But
today the Slovak language is a
natural part of the identity of
Slovaks and as such it needs
no repressive legal mechan-
isms for its protection. It’s ba-
sically a dispute between
those who want to protect and
fight for the language and
those who want to care for it
and cultivate it. If there is a
threat to Slovak [language],
then it is because of low-brow
Slovaks and not Hungarians
and other minorities.
The Mikuláš Dzurinda
government liberalised the
law in 1999 and passed a law
on minority languages, so
formally these two problems
were modified, but the truth is
that both laws were imperfect
– and therefore they needed
and will need to be improved.
In 2009 the Robert Fico gov-
ernment again toughened the
Rudolf Chmel
law and practically sent it
back to the Mečiar times. The
current ruling coalition is try-
ing to harmonise both laws
and liberalise them – that is,
moderate the protection and
increase the care for both the
state language and the minor-
ity languages.
TSS: How did you view the
tension between Hungari-
ans and Slovaks that sur-
faced because of the State
Language Act?
RCh: The Hungarian
minority handles the lan-
guage issue differently than
other minorities, as the Hun-
garians, similar to Slovaks,
still live with the belief that
the language is the most im-
portant attribute of their na-
tional identity. That is true,
we only realise it less when
talking about minorities.
When it comes to language, a
minority is naturally more
vulnerable and endangered
because it lives in the envir-
onment of the majority lan-
guage and in most cases it is
the minority language rather
than the majority language
that is assimilated.
In 2009, the State Lan-
guage Act amendment was re-
introduced into the Slovak-
Hungarian national and inter-
state agenda, since the re-
pressive features of the
amendment were mainly dir-
ected against the Hungarian
minority. The Hungarian gov-
ernment interfered and the
balloon went up. At that time
I believed it was unnecessary,
as was part of the Hungarian
card which the Fico-led gov-
ernment played in bilateral re-
lations with Hungary. That
was why we believed that the
restrictive measures should
be done away with. After all,
there were relevant interna-
tional recommendations to
support our stance.
TSS: But the sanctions
which you criticised in the
NEWS
Photo: TASR
past remain in the law,
even though in a more lim-
ited way. Are you satisfied
with the solution that par-
liament recently passed?
RCh: We came up with
the request to remove the re-
strictive measures in both the
State Language Act and the
law on minority languages
since the two laws actually
are two sides of one issue and
therefore they need to be
compatible.
The amendment to the
State Language Act was pro-
posed by the culture minister
as it falls under his depart-
ment. There is even a state
language department at the
Culture Ministry overseeing
the correct usage of Slovak.
That was what I cancelled
when I served as culture min-
ister [in 2002-2005, ed. note]
because it seemed too much
for the ministerial officials to
say what is right and what is
wrong in the language. For all
that, we’ve got a paramount
academic authority, the
Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Lin-
guistics at the Slovak
Academy of Sciences, as well
as several university depart-
ments. It’s not the officials’
and politicians’ place to codi-
fy the language. Apart from
that, I believe that [the State
Language Act] should be a law
with symbolic value only and
it shouldn’t be used for any
repressions or threats.
So it was necessary to
amend the law, but that’s
easier said than done, as old
nationalist prejudices and
traumas which have been at
work in Slovak-Hungarian re-
lations for decades remain
present in the Slovak political
consciousness, both national-
ist and democratic – the one
that currently rules the coun-
try. Now, nationalists from
Smer and the Slovak National
Party (SNS) say that the law is
servile to Budapest and on the
other hand the Hungarian
nationalists criticise the
Slovak government, saying
that the law continues perse-
cuting the minorities. So the
nationalists usually depart
from the same platforms,
only standing against each
other. But I believe that if the
sanctions were dropped com-
pletely, the law would be
rather optimal.
Using the term ‘sanction’
or ‘fine’ in relation to lan-
guage is a drastic interven-
tion into society, as language
is a very intimate issue, a
very personal part of the hu-
man identity as well as of the
identity of a bigger com-
munity. Any repressions in
that area interfere with hu-
man dignity. After our latest
amendment, the repressions
will only be used in official
matters, very formally, but I
think they are completely re-
dundant there.
There has been signific-
ant relief in several areas in
public and official commu-
nication, for instance in self-
government offices or in po-
lice offices. The relief is even
bigger in the area of culture.
But the law still doesn’t con-
tain all the relief that might
be necessary.
TSS: Now you will also at-
tempt to amend the law on
minority languages, which
should in many respects
widen the right of minorit-
ies to use their mother
tongues – a measure that of-
ten encounters resistance
from politicians in Slov-
akia. Why is there a lack of
willingness among Slovak
politicians for this?
RCh: It is necessary to
amend the law on minority
languages since we amended
the law on the state language
and these two laws must be
compatible. We also set as
one of our aims a more com-
prehensive concept of minor-
ity policy in legal terms. We
want to do away with the dis-
cord between the two lan-
guages, as the State Language
Act often interfered into the
usage of minority languages,
especially after the Fico-led
government amended it.
That needed to be removed
because using minority lan-
guages is governed by the law
on minority languages and
not by the State Language
Act. International recom-
mendations spoke in the
same voice that this discord
needs to be removed.
To make the two laws
compatible, there are now
sanctions introduced in the
draft amendment to the law
on minority languages, be-
cause there are sanctions as
well in the State Language
Act. If a minority member
isn’t able to enforce his or her
right to speak a minority lan-
guage, they can complain
about the institution in ques-
tion. But I personally believe
that there should not be sanc-
tions in any of the laws.
See RCh pg 11
January 10 – January 16, 2011
2011: More justice
reforms to come
Continued from pg 1
According to Darina
Malová, the head of the de-
partment of political sci-
ences at the Faculty of Philo-
sophy of Comenius Uni-
versity, the year will be filled
with “common, everyday
politics”, which will revolve
around relations between
the governing coalition and
the opposition, bilateral re-
lations with Hungary, as
well as on the country’s eco-
nomic performance and de-
velopments within the
European Union.
Grigorij Mesežnikov, a
political analyst and presid-
ent of the Institute for Pub-
lic Affairs (IVO), highlighted
consolidation of public fin-
ances, a process which was
launched by the new gov-
ernment last year, as the
key agenda that will con-
tinue in 2011, both in the
domestic context as well as
within the broader contours
of the eurozone.
Other changes that
Mesežnikov expects to un-
fold in 2011 are an increase in
government transparency
and reforms in the judicial
arena. Mesežnikov said judi-
cial reforms will be particu-
larly important for Slovakia,
adding that “it will not have
the form of some spectacular
event, but rather a process”.
According to a survey re-
cently released by IVO, there
is less public perception of
tension in social and eco-
nomic areas.
People are less critical
and not as concerned about
economic reforms but are
rather set to accept the
measures that the govern-
ment has been putting in
place, Mesežnikov said in an
interview with The Slovak
Spectator.
Relations between Slov-
akia and Hungary, which
became problematic during
the term of the past govern-
ment, especially after the
Slovak parliament passed
the State Language Act and
the Hungarian parliament
amended its citizenship le-
gislation to allow Hungari-
ans living outside Hungary
to be more easily granted
Hungarian citizenship, are
not expected to be particu-
larly troublesome in 2011.
“Hungary has got its own
economic and political
problems,” Mesežnikov told
The Slovak Spectator. “It is a
presiding country in the EU
that now finds itself under
the fire of criticism for
passing some laws that are
not in line with the
European spirit.”
The centre-right coali-
tion that currently governs
Slovakia under the leader-
ship of Prime Minister Iveta
Radičová is generally expec-
ted to be stable.
“There have been some
concussions in the past, but
they never grew into a coali-
3
tion crisis,” Mesežnikov
said, adding that the ruling
coalition managed even in
hard situations to reach an
agreement, particularly in
the area of practical politics –
deciding on laws.
“Most laws that the co-
alition agreed on have been
passed,” he said. “And at this
practical-politics level I ex-
pect the coalition to contin-
ue being united.”
Malová noted that stabil-
ity within any coalition is
hard to predict but given the
fact that two new political
parties are in the coalition
many disagreements could
occur, resulting in internal
coalition disputes.
But she said that need
not be a disadvantage. “It
can, in the end, be of benefit
for citizens,” Malová told
The Slovak Spectator.
She added that the gov-
ernment and its stability
will depend to a large extent
on the tactics which the
largest opposition party,
Smer, headed by Robert Fico,
uses in its political man-
oeuvring. She thought it
very probable that Smer
would try to use every op-
portunity to discredit the
government and create situ-
ations that will intensify
conflict and disagreement
within the coalition.
Most recently, the gov-
erning coalition experienced
discord when parliament
failed to select the coalition’s
candidate for general pro-
secutor, after six MPs from
the coalition did not vote in
line with their parties’
agreement in a secret ballot.
It was only by a stroke of
luck that the opposition-en-
dorsed candidate, incum-
bent Dobroslav Trnka, was
not selected.
Mesežnikov said trust
between the coalition part-
ners was shaken by this fail-
ure but argued that it was
not a real coalition crisis but
rather an attempt to corrupt
a group of coalition MPs.
Malová noted that the
forthcoming vote on the
new general prosecutor,
which will most likely be
held under new rules in a
public vote, is the most sig-
nificant political event that
overlaps into 2011 from last
year and will continue influ-
encing the political scene
until it is resolved.
“It will be a test for the
ruling parties,” Malová said.
Mesežnikov agreed that
the vote will be an important
moment for the coalition but
he believes it is very likely
that once the rules for the
vote are changed the
coalition’s endorsed candid-
ate will be selected.
“I cannot imagine that
after they change the way of
voting there will not be a
coalition majority that
would select the general
prosecutor,” Mesežnikov
said.
4 January 10 – January 16, 2011 BUSINESS

SALE: Reports target several state firms

Ministry addresses EC over e-toll
THE TRANSPORT Ministry
has sent a response to the
European Commission, ad-
dressing objections it raised
regarding the method Slov-
akia used to pick the supplier
of its electronic highway toll
system. Slovakia’s response
was not published.
Ministry spokesperson
Martin Krajčovič reiterated
that Transport Minister Ján
Figeľ would advocate
Slovakia’s interests in the
case, despite the fact that he
had criticised the tender as
being overpriced when he
was an opposition leader, the
SITA newswire reported. The
tender was managed by the
previous government.
The EC is concerned that
Slovakia may have violated
EU regulations in the tender
for procurement of the elec-
tronic toll collection system
by discriminating against
some bidders and thus pre-
venting competition.
The National Highway
Company (NDS) announced
Final deficit for 2010 announced
THE STATE budget ended last
year with a deficit of €4.436
billion. This means it grew
by €925 million month-on-
month in December and by
€1.645 billion when com-
pared to the deficit posted in
2009, the Finance Ministry
announced on Monday,
January 3, as reported by the
TASR newswire.
Nevertheless, the final
figures were better than had
been forecast in the revised
state budget that the Finance
Ministry released at the end
of November 2010.
That had raised the ori-
ginal deficit forecast of
€3.746 billion to as much as
€4.54 billion.
State revenues reached
€10.901 billion by the end of
December, or 91.9 percent of
the revised expected revenue
the public tender for an oper-
ator of an electronic toll col-
lection system in September
2007, with the estimated
value of the contract amount-
ing to €664 million. In
December 2007, it seemed
that only three of the initial
eight bidders would compete
for the tender, after the NDS
excluded three bidders from
the running in November,
claiming they did not comply
with the technical specifica-
tions. After signing a con-
tract, some contractual terms
were significantly revised.
The EC said that if the
changes had been introduced
at the beginning of the pro-
curement process and parti-
cipating applicants made fa-
miliar with them, they could
have had submitted alternat-
ive bids and more applicants
could have been included in
the bidding process.
NDS is alleged to have vi-
olated the principles of equal
treatment and non-discrim-
ination.
(€11.867 billion). They grew
by 3.4 percent year-on-year,
TASR wrote.
Overall state expendit-
ures grew by 15 percent year-
on-year to €15.337 billion,
which represented 93.5 per-
cent of the revised plan
(€16.407 billion).
Finance Minister Ivan
Mikloš explained the need
for the revised budget by
pointing to the discrepancies
between the budget adopted
by the previous government
and economic reality, saying
that the previously planned
deficit of 5.5 percent was no
longer realistic since the ac-
tual figure was approaching
7.8 percent of GDP.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
Continued from pg 1
“Moreover, the state is an
ineffective administrator of
companies with regards to dis-
cordance in the motivations of
taxpayers and state officials
installed into managerial posi-
tions. This is why ineffective
handling of public funds,
cronyism and corruption oc-
curs more often in state
companies,” Karpiš added.
The analyst believes that
privatisation would, on the one
hand, mean an end to ineffect-
ive management in these com-
panies and, on the other hand,
privatisation proceeds would
cover part of the state’s ex-
penses.
“This means that on con-
stant public expenditures, we
will have to pay less in taxes
and levies,” said Karpiš. “Thus
we welcome privatisation.”
After several waves of
privatisation following the fall
of the communist regime, the
state still holds stakes in com-
panies operating in transport,
energy, heating, forestry,
health care, postal services and
other segments. It holds them
either via the National Prop-
erty Fund (FNM) state privat-
isation agency or via individual
ministries responsible for vari-
ous sectors of the economy. In
the recent past, Bratislava Air-
port and the railway compan-
ies have been most frequently
cited as potential targets for
privatisation.
Both the FNM and the Eco-
nomy Ministry have already
submitted reports about the
operation of companies in
which they hold stakes. Now
the reports are awaiting dis-
cussion by the Slovak cabinet.
Unlike the FNM, the min-
istry does not directly propose
any privatisation.
The FNM proposes to sell
its stakes in Slovak Telekom,
heating plants as well in re-
gional bus companies. Based
on current nominal values,
this could raise hundreds of
millions of euros. The FNM
sees the sale of the stakes as a
way to raise money from the
The Košice heating plant is on the 'for sale' list.
sale itself as well as by the re-
moval of the public sector’s in-
fluence and thus the accelera-
tion of commercial activities
in respective segments, ac-
cording to the report. The
privatisation agency also pro-
poses the sale of the stakes as
part of the government’s plans
to dissolve the FNM itself.
According to the ministry
report, the Ministry of Eco-
nomy holds 100-percent stakes
in two companies: the Nuclear
Decommissioning Company
(JAVYS) and the crude-oil
pipeline operator Transpetrol.
It also holds a 34-percent share
in Slovak Telekom.
“All the companies report
in the long run a positive eco-
nomic performance and a pos-
itive return on capital,” the
ministry wrote in its report, as
cited by TASR on January 3.
“They pay out dividends into
the state budget annually,
apart from Transpetrol. The
companies’ results do not in-
dicate an unambiguous need
for their privatisation.”
On the other hand, the
FNM proposes to sell the
15-percent stake, with a nom-
inal value of €130 million, that
it holds in Slovak Telekom. A
majority stake of 51 percent is
owned by private operator
Deutsche Telekom.
“From the viewpoint of the
FNM, the sale of the stake
Photo: TASR
presents the most rational
alternative,” the FNM wrote in
its submission, recalling the
recent liberalisation of the
Slovak telecom market and the
decreasing market share of the
company. “With regards to de-
velopment on telecommunica-
tions markets in general,
growth in the value of the stake
held by the FNM and the state
is improbable. A positive devel-
opment in profitability and thus
also in expected dividends is not
probable. The FNM together
with the Economy Ministry do
not have, as minority share-
holders .. any real reach on the
heading of the company.”
The ministry agrees with
the FNM’s arguments, pointing
to the decreasing position of the
one-time monopoly operator.
“In case of the sale of the
whole stake held by the Slovak
shareholder, i.e. the stakes of
the ministry and FNM, the
Ministry of Economy proposes
to sell a portion of it to a stra-
tegic investor and a portion via
the capital market,” the min-
istry writes, as quoted by TASR.
According to the SITA
newswire, Deutsche Telekom
has declined to comment on
any privatisation plans for now.
Other stakes for sale
The FNM also proposes to
sell its 100-percent stakes in
all six local heating plants (in
Trnava, Žilina, Košice, Martin,
Bratislava and Zvolen). Their
aggregate nominal value is
around €166.7 million. The
FNM argues that the heating
companies are not able to cov-
er their operating costs des-
pite the extensive sale of real
estate and are forced to draw
on outside sources to secure
their further existence. The
FNM also points to the in-
vestments the companies
need to remain competitive
and meet increasingly tough
environmental requirements.
The FNM proposes to sell the
heating companies in the form
of an international tender.
Their sale was part of the pro-
gramme of the 2002-2006
Mikuláš Dzurinda government,
but was not carried out due to
the early parliamentary elec-
tion held in 2006.
The FNM also proposes to
sell minority stakes in region-
al bus companies. It holds
stakes of between 37.84 per-
cent and 44.01 percent in 17 bus
companies, with an aggregate
nominal value of around
€72.13 million.
Among other companies in
which the FNM has stakes it
wants to sell is the Bratislava
Stock Exchange (BCPB), in
which it holds 75.94 percent,
the Kúpele Sliač spa (67 percent)
and the Polyclinics Tehelná in
Bratislava (100 percent).
The FNM has not proposed,
for now, the sale of stakes it
holds in Letisko MR Štefánika –
Airport Bratislava as well as
water utility companies.
Based on the applicable le-
gislation, the FNM also leaves it
to the Slovak cabinet to decide
on the stakes it holds in com-
panies which act as natural
monopolies.
These companies include
three regional power distrib-
utors in which the FNM holds
51-percent stakes, gas utility
SPP, in which it holds 51 per-
cent, and Slovak electricity
grid operator Slovenská
Elektrizačná Prenosová
Sústava (SEPS), in which the
FNM holds 100 percent.

ECON: Pushing the state deficit under 5 percent in 2011

Continued from pg 1 Slovakia is a small and export-oriented economy dependent on “This so called ‘vale of tears’ can hardly be avoided, as only
foreign partners. “As well as tax incomes, real savings via spend- later do the ongoing and gradually increasing benefits of past de-
“I consider the slowdown in the growth of the economy by ing or the drawing of EU funds might lag behind.” cisions exceed the gradually receding perceived disadvantages
some tenths of a percent a smaller threat than the fact that the of such structural changes, i.e. reforms,” Vaňo told The Slovak
country would otherwise take the road of inappropriate Good ground for reforms? Spectator. Vaňo noted that the drawbacks of reforms are viewed
indebtedness,” Sadovská said. as less painful during a period of recovering economic growth.
She expects prices to grow by 3.2 percent in 2011, while in Referring to economic theory, the Financial Policy Institute “On the other hand, we should keep in mind that a peculiar
some months food prices might jump by as much as 7 percent. at the Finance Ministry suggested that 2011 might serve as a feature of this recovery is that the decline in unemployment can-
Consolidation measures, such as higher VAT and excise taxes, good foundation for reforms, but said this would not depend on not be expected to be as fast as it used to be in the past,” Vaňo said.
will take less than 1 percent of the share of this development, political will alone. Higher public support as well as the effect of Since unemployment is the most important economic metric
Sadovská said. The higher taxes will not be fully reflected in the economic and election cycles might have a positive contri- for households, one should not overestimate taxpayers’ optimism
prices since merchants will carry part of the burden in the form bution, the institute suggested, referring to a Eurobarometer when it comes to unpopular measures, according to the analyst.
of lower margins, she explained, adding that this practice could survey showing that more than 80 percent of respondents be- “Hence, reforms should be done when necessary, not when
be ascribed to the relatively high unemployment rate. lieve reforms are necessary for Slovakia’s economy. they become palatable, since by definition the sweet fruit of re-
“Higher prices for commodities or oil on world markets will “In addition to that, the best time for reforming is two years forms always follows the bitter sweating at the beginning,
impact more expensive food products” Sadovská said. after a recession and in the first two years of the election cycle,” shortly after they are implemented,” Vaňo said. “The theory of
“However, the comparison basis from last year will make a con- wrote the Financial Policy Institute. “On the other hand, the on- political economy argues that important reforms should be
tribution, since prices in many cases over the past year fell or going healing of the public finances might to a certain degree done as soon after elections as possible so that the palatable
climbed only very slowly.” hold back [the reforms].” fruits manage to ripen before the next elections.”
Sadovská considers the greatest challenge the government Vladimír Vaňo, chief analyst with Volksbank, suggested that Already, negotiation over the 2011 budget and discussion
might face in 2011 as being to keep to its plan of consolidation any structural economic reforms are initially followed by higher about fiscal consolidation has shown that the diverse composi-
and to push the public finance deficit under 5 percent of GDP. perceived costs, which in the early stages outweigh the immedi- tion of the governing coalition can pose major challenges to ne-
“There are certain risks, however,” she said, adding that ate perceived benefits. cessary but unpopular measures, Vaňo concluded.
 OPINION January 10 – January 16, 2011 5
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “In fact we saved him.” The dog does his duty
Slovak police chief Jaroslav Spišiak explains away a truck driver’s
temporary incarceration in Turkey following a botched police operation – but to whom?
WHENEVER the public begins Robert Fico, anyone who de- still people in this country

Opakovaný vtip to forget about Ján Slota, the

BY LUKÁŠ FILA
Special to the Spectator
“A JOKE repeated, is not a
joke,” (opakovaný vtip nie je
vtipom) says a Slovak pro-
verb. Still, local police ended
2010 in very much the same
style as they started it – by al-
lowing an unsuspecting ci-
vilian to carry dangerous
cargo around Europe.
In January it was the
electrician from Poprad who
flew to Dublin with his
backpack containing test ex-
plosives which had been lost
by border police during a
dog-training exercise.
In December came the
story of the driver whose
truck was filled with a sub-
stance used in the produc-
tion of heroin.
Yes, there were differ-
ences. The testing of explos-
ives on travellers was clearly
illegal and brought the coun-
try international ridicule,
but on the other hand
presented no actual threat,
not counting the danger
ADVERTISEMENT
SLOVAK WORD
OF THE WEEK
posed by Irish airport secur-
ity and law enforcement.
The recent “monitored
transport” on the other
hand could be legally justi-
fied, meant no Europe-wide
embarrassment, but also
put the Czech driver in real
danger. Not to mention the
fact that he had to spend
Christmas in a Turkish
prison.
There are several lessons
both cases hold:
1. Don’t trust the Slovak
police with your luggage. Or
your vehicle.
2. Never expect local of-
ficials to accept responsibil-
ity for the mistakes of their
subordinates. Former interi-
or minister Robert Kaliňák at
one point suggested that
perhaps it was the dog that
didn’t do his job right. And
now police chief Jaroslav
Spišiak explained that not
only did the police do noth-
ing wrong, they “completed
the operation with bravura”.
3. Whatever goes
wrong, foreigners are to
blame. Kaliňák said that Ir-
ish police overreacted by
sealing off an entire street
when they went in to get the
explosive. Current minister
Daniel Lipšic says that the
truck affair “confirms that
Turkey is not ready for EU
entry”.
Luckily, neither case had
a tragic end. But let’s hope
there will be no more of them
in 2011. This joke wasn’t
funny even the first time
around.
chairman of Slovak National
Party (SNS), he reaffirms his
dismal political presence by
making one or two scandalous
statements which, apart from
appalling everyone with any
sense of decency, tend to add
fuel to nationalist fires.
This is how he has man-
aged to linger so long on
Slovakia’s political stage –
though his party came tantal-
isingly close at the last gener-
al election to falling below the
5-percent threshold needed to
win seats in parliament.
Slota’s strategy demon-
strates that crass statements
or clumsy political acts can
temporarily lend more polit-
ical importance to failing
political figures than they ac-
tually have or deserve, attract-
ing the spotlight if only for a
day or two.
More often than not,
those on the road to being
forgotten by the public, but
still driven by a desire to
make it back into the game,
barely consider the con-
sequences of their actions.
The leader of the Hun-
garian Coalition Party (SMK),
József Berényi, attracted me-
dia attention at the very be-
ginning of the year by an-
nouncing that as chairman of
the only Hungarian party in
Slovakia, it was his “dog’s
duty” to apply for Hungarian
liberately applies and thereby
acquires the citizenship of an-
other country can be stripped
who look at the Hungarian
minority as a threat to Slov-
akia.
He has certainly not re-
duced this number with his
EDITORIAL contribution to the discourse.
What Berényi seems to
forget is that Hungarians in
Slovakia rejected the radical-
isation of the political scene
when they turned away from
the SMK at the last election,
denying it any seats in par-
liament.
In fact, even former prime
minister and Smer leader
Robert Fico, who could hardly
be described as a minority-
friendly politician and whose
government only fuelled ten-
sions with Slovakia’s south-
ern neighbour, suggested that
Slovak politicians have
slightly underestimated the
loyalty of Slovak Hungarians
to Slovakia.
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ Perhaps so did Berényi
Spectator staff and his SMK.
Undoubtedly, Slota’s
presence in the previous gov-
of their Slovak passport. It is ernment and the amended
hard to say which of these two State Language Act contrib-
laws was more poorly timed uted little to the comfort of
or did a greater disservice to Hungarians who live in Slov-
those it claimed to protect or akia – on the land where their
represent. grandparents lived, and
The Slovak law is still val- where they hope their own
id, which is bad enough in it- grandchildren will continue
self. to understand and speak
One explanation Berényi Hungarian.
offered for his action was to However, Berényi’s act
suggest that the new gov- opens up a more serious ques-

Join team!
citizenship, something made
possible by a piece of legisla-
tion cooked up by Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
The Rock s.r.o./The Slovak Spectator is looking for a and his government.
The law allows ethnic
Hungarians living in coun-
Circulation Manager tries bordering Hungary to
acquire Hungarian citizen-
ship, if they chose to, with re-
lative ease.
Job description Yet due to a counter-
measure passed by the previ-
ous Slovak government, led by
The Circulation Manager is responsible for the promotion and management of circulation and
distribution of all print and online products published by The Slovak Spectator. The position
involves communication both verbally and in writing with distribution partners, subscribers and
other clients in both English and Slovak, as well as co-designing and implementing strategies for
increasing the Slovak Spectators’ circulation Ħgures. This requires the ability to communicate well
(verbally and in writing) in both English and Slovak.
ernment should not have al-
lowed 2011 to arrive without
repealing the Fico-drafted le-
gislation.
But it is highly doubtful
that his Hungarian citizen-
ship application will increase
in any way the likelihood of
this happening.
All it does is give Slota and
his ilk oxygen for their sole
agenda: nationalism. In early
January Berényi commented
that unfortunately there are
tion than just the citizenship
of the SMK boss: it is the polit-
ical representation of ethnic
Hungarians in Slovakia, and
whether politicians who cur-
rently address their agenda
are able to abandon their petty
political fights for the sake of
what they claim to represent:
better conditions for the Hun-
garians in Slovakia to nourish
their mother tongue and cul-
ture and use it without re-
striction or fear of penalty.

Job requirements JÁN PALLO - Publisher

EDITORIAL
Education: University education/student at university, preferably in Business or Marketing BEATA BALOGOVÁ - Editor - In - Chief
JAMES THOMSON - Assistant Editor
Language skills: English language - advanced (speaking, writing) DONALD SPATZ - Assistant Editor
JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ - Staff Writer
Computer skills: High degree of PC literacy (MS Oƍce, MS Outlook, MS Excel) MICHAELA TERENZANI - Staff Writer
DOMINIKA UHRÍKOVÁ - Staff Writer
ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ - News Researcher
Additional
requirements: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, ability to work independently, LAYOUT, WEB & IT
strong business acumen, good organizational skills, creative personality. TATIANA ŠTRAUCHOVÁ - Graphic Designer
ROMAN KRÁĽ - IT
Work location: Bratislava TOMÁŠ PALLO - Online Publishing

SALES - FINANCES
Start date: February 2011 BEATA FOJTÍKOVÁ - Sales Executive
MARTINA ŠMATLÁKOVÁ - PR and Marketing Manager
Salary: By agreement (Ħxed income + monthly commission) MARTA FUKASOVÁ - Advertising Assistant
DÁŠA REHÁKOVÁ - Circulation Manager
Other beneģts: Dynamic media and international environment, possibilities of professional growth
The Slovak Spectator is an independent newspaper published every Monday by The Rock, s.r.o. Subscriptions: Inquiries should be made
to The Slovak Spectator’s business office at (+421-2) 59 233 300.
Employment type: Full-time employment Printing: Petit Press a.s. Distribution: Interpress Slovakia s.r.o., Mediaprint-kapa s.r.o., Slovenská po‰ta a.s. Mail Distribution: ABOPRESS. EV 544/08.
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in this issue, represented by the publisher, reserve the right to give their approval for reproducing and public transmission of articles marked
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Please send your CV and cover letter in English by e-mail: job@spectator.sk enterprises or ventures by The Slovak Spectator or The Rock s.r.o. ISSN 1335-9843.
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6 January 10 – January 16, 2011

MEDIA AND PR
TV in Slovakia to go fully BUSINESS FOCUS Next issue:
digital by 2012

Slovakia gets its own edition SLOVAK BRAND NAMES

of Forbes IN THE WORLD

The news from Facebook Institutions and organisations of

media, advertising and PR

Ministry of Culture
Minister: Daniel Krajcer
Social media have www.culture.gov.sk
changed how
Slovak Syndicate of Journalists (SSJ)
news is reported www.ssn.sk

Association of Internet Media (AIM)

BY MICHAELA www.aimsr.sk
TERENZANI
Spectator staff Association of Public Relations (APRSR)
www.aprsr.sk

BREAKING a story on a social Club of Advertising Agencies of Slovakia (KRAS)

network that allows one to
write only 140 characters per
post might have seemed like a
foolish way to engage in
journalism only a few years
ago. But at the beginning of
2011 there is no question that
journalistic work has changed
tremendously and journalism
is now peering through the
lenses of Facebook and Twit-
ter. Slovak journalists are not
lagging behind and are in-
creasingly using social net-
works as both sources of news
and as publication vehicles.
That offers many positives and
ways to improve the work of
journalists but also poses some
challenges and questions yet
to be answered.
“Some of the most difficult
discussions over the past five
years were about journalism
becoming a conversation
rather than one-way traffic,”
said Matthew Eltringham, an
assistant editor at the Inter-
activity and Social Media De-
velopment department at the
BBC who leads a programme
bringing social media skills to
all journalists at the BBC, dur-
ing a discussion on Social Me-
dia and its Impact on Modern
Journalists are using social media as a tool in their work.
Journalism organised by the largest being Twitter and
Open Society Foundation and Facebook, which are becoming
Frontline on December 14, a valuable source of user-gen-
2010 in Bratislava. “And for erated content for journalists.
journalists who’ve been in the The idea that an audience
business for 20 years, who can tell its own story without
were used to standing up big media organisations’ in-
telling everybody what the tervention has changed the
news is, [it is a challenge] to game for major news organ-
understand that that one-way isations.
traffic is on its way out and “The idea that we control
that news and journalism is the flow of information has
increasingly a conversation.” changed and we are begin-
ning to get used to it,” El-
News reporting tringham said, adding that
is not one-way the audience, rather than
waiting to be contacted by the
The conversation between media organisations or wait-
journalists and their audi- ing to hear from them what
ences is taking place mainly the story is, is trying to dir-
via virtual encounters on so- ectly influence the story
cial networks, among the through social media.
Photo: SITA
According to Tomáš Bella,
an expert on new media with
NextBig consulting company
and the first editor-in-chief of
sme.sk, Slovakia’s biggest
news server, user-generated
content can become even more
important for the Slovak me-
dia than it is for the British and
American media. The Slovak
media’s production capacities
are much smaller than those of
large foreign outlets: the local
private media, for instance, do
not have permanent foreign
correspondents. For that reas-
on user-generated content can
help Slovak media cover topics
which large foreign media as-
sign to their own reporters.
See MEDIA pg 8
www.kras.sk
Media in Slovakia
The Market & Media & Lifestyle – Target Group Index
(MML-TGI) survey, conducted by the Median SK agency
in licensed cooperation with the British Kantar Media
Group, was administered between March 29 and
September 12, 2010, among a sample of 4,137 respondents
aged 14 to 79. The survey results below are combined
for the second and third quarters of 2010.
Print
According to the MML-TGI survey, 40 percent of the
Slovak population had read one of the national daily
newspapers when asked about the most recent issue of
the dailies. Nový Čas dominated the ranking with 23
percent readership, far ahead of other daily papers. The
next three papers, Plus Jeden Deň, Sme and Pravda each
had 7 percent readership.
Most-read dailies
1. Nový Čas (tabloid); number of readers: over 1 million;
23% of the adult population
2. Plus Jeden Deň (tabloid); 7%
3. Sme (national daily); 7%
4. Pravda (national daily); 7%
5. Šport (sports-oriented daily); 4%
6. Korzár (daily covering eastern Slovakia); 4%
7. Hospodárske Noviny (financial daily); 3%
8. Új Szó (Hungarian-language daily); 2%

Internet advertising records uptick Radio

ONLINE advertising is showing an up-
ward trend after falling for more than a
year. Online advertising on the web pages
of members of the Association of Internet
Media (AIM) amounted to €5.41 million
for the third quarter of 2010. Though this
was a 7.1-percent drop compared with the
second quarter of 2010 it represented an
increase of 6.6 percent compared with the
third quarter of 2009.
“After five quarters the volume of on-
line advertising started to grow again,”
Milan Csaplár, AIM executive board chief
wrote in a press release. “For the market it
is a positive signal and I believe that the
growth will continue also in the next
quarters.”
With regards to the types of online
advertising, banner advertising contin-
ued to dominate. But for the first time this
type of advertising fell below its tradi-
tional more-than-half share and stood at
49.1 percent (€2.66 million) in the third
quarter of 2010. Classifieds ads followed
with 22.3 percent (€1.2 million) and
search ads were slightly less, with 17.8
percent (€965,000).
Compared with the third quarter of
2009, the biggest growth was registered in
the lead-generation segment, recording a
jump of 652 percent.
In terms of the source of the advert-
ising for banner ads and rich media, i.e. in-
ternet advertising that contains anima-
tion, audio, flashing colours, and other en-
hancements, the telecommunications in-
dustry accounted for 23.3 percent, followed
by the automotive sector with 13.1 percent,
and various other services with 11.3 per-
cent. The latter included, for example,
political advertising and advertising for
education, according to AIM. The figures
presented were for media-net value advert-
ised on the websites of AIM members,
meaning that the values included commis-
sions by advertising and media agencies.
Beginning in 2011 available data about
online advertising will be more extensive
as AIM will begin releasing quarterly data
on online advertising revenues of servers
that are not AIM members and foreign
servers operating in Slovakia, for example
Google and Facebook.
Overall ad decline in 2009
Online advertising on the websites
of AIM members amounted to €23.3
million in 2009, a drop of 5.4 percent
compared with 2008. This was the first
annual drop since 2004 when AIM
began monitoring online advertising
revenues.
The final quarter of 2009 was re-
sponsible for much of the annual de-
cline as online advertising decreased by
as much as 20 percent in the October-
December 2009 period compared with
the same months of 2008, AIM reported.
Advertising spending in all forms of
media shrank by as much as 35.3 percent
over 2009, to €1.1 billion, according to
data published in June 2010 by TNS SK, a
firm active in market research.
Based on its analysis, revenue from
advertising on television experienced a
significant decline after official rates
were decreased.
The drop in advertising spending
among other media was not as steep.
Print-based advertising decreased only
moderately and outdoor advertising was
unchanged.
Advertising in cinemas and on radio
increased.
By Jana Liptáková
The proportion of respondents who listened to the radio
on the day before the survey was 72 percent.
Most-listened-to radio stations
1. Rádio Expres (private); 21%
2. Rádio Slovensko (Slovakia’s public-service
broadcaster SRo, now RTVS (Radio and Television of
Slovakia); 17%
3. Fun Rádio (private); 13%
Television
The proportion of people who watch TV was 89 percent
according to the results of the MML-TGI survey.
Most-watched TV channels
1. Markíza (private, targeting a family audience); 56%
2. JOJ (private, targeting a family audience); 37%
3. Jednotka (the first channel of public-service
broadcaster Slovenská Televízia, now RTVS (Radio and
Television of Slovakia); 23%
4. TA3 (private news channel); 6%
5. RTL Klub (private), Dvojka (the second channel of
Slovak Television) and TV Doma (private); each 3%
Source: MML-TGI by Median SK agency
Compiled by Spectator staff

TV in Slovakia to go
fully digital by 2012
Analogue TV
broadcasts to
stop completely
by next year
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
SLOVAKIA is switching from
analogue broadcasting of TV
signals to digital. The process
is expected to be completed
over the course of 2011 with
the analogue format to be dis-
continued completely by the
end of 2012. Moving to the new
technology brings better pic-
ture and sound quality and it
also offers multiple program-
ming choices and interactive
capabilities.
“The process of the trans-
ition to digital TV is following
the plan and if no unpredict-
able events occur we believe
that we should complete the
definitive transition from ana-
logue to digital broadcasts in
late 2011,” said Ján Hudacký,
the state secretary of the Min-
istry of Transport, Construc-
tion and Regional Develop-
ment, on December 7, as
quoted by the SITA newswire.
In several areas of Slovakia di-
gital television has already
been launched along with re-
striction of the analogue sig-
nal. He added that a mass
switch-off of the analogue
transmitters is expected dur-
ing the first half of 2011.
The transition to DVB-T
(Digital Video Broadcasting-
Terrestrial), as the whole pro-
cess is known in Slovakia, dir-
ectly impacts those viewers
who receive their TV signal via
a classical TV antenna on an
analogue TV set. These view-
ers will need to obtain a so-
called set-top box, a digital-to-
analogue converter, or pur-
chase a new TV and redirect
their antenna in order to re-
ceive digital programming.
The ministry estimates the
proportion of such Slovak
households at 50 percent, ac-
cording to the website
www.digimedia.sk, which is
devoted to the transition. The
change will not affect those
using the services of cable op-
erators or receiving their sig-
nal from a satellite.
Filip Hanker, an expert
and the editor-in-chief of
Zive.sk and MobilMania.sk,
sees the transition to the di-
gital format as an opportunity
to launch interactive services,
even though at the current
time there is no information
about their actual launch.
Hanker perceives the main
disadvantage of the transition
is that people who still own ana-
logue TV sets will need to buy
either a set-top box or a new TV
and re-direct their antennas.
The highly visible Kamzík television transmitter above Bratislava.
To support the
‘digitalisation’ of Slovak soci-
ety the government is pre-
pared to help socially-weak
groups of citizens to purchase
set-top boxes with a one-off
subsidy of €20 per household.
However, at the end of 2010
parliament changed the
method for distribution of the
financial assistance. Origin-
ally, people with low incomes,
pensioners and the disabled
were supposed to automatic-
ally receive the €20 for pur-
chase of the set-top box by
post. Now, they must apply to
receive the subsidy.
An important benefit of
the switch to all-digital broad-
casting is that it has freed up
parts of the broadcast spec-
trum. Hanker believes that the
additional bands can later be
used for internet connectivity.
Under the new system and
within the so-called multi-
plex system, a group of TV
channels are mixed together
(multiplexed) for broadcast
over a digital TV channel and
then separated out (de-multi-
plexed) by the receiver. Since
one TV channel or frequency
enables the broadcast of only
one analogue television
channel, the digital format
enables much more to be
broadcast, depending on the
chosen MPEG standard (the
generic coding of moving pic-
tures and associated audio in-
formation).
The current MPEG-2
standard enables the broad-
cast of four to five channels in
one multiplex. The MPEG-4
standard enables broadcasting
more than five channels.
BUSINESS FOCUS
Hanker believes that from
the technological point of
view it would be better for
Slovakia to choose the more
modern standard and he ex-
pects in the future that the
country will switch to MPEG-
4. He discounts arguments
about the large difference
between the prices of devices
with the older and newer cod-
ing standards, saying that
this is gradually disappear-
ing. Currently the price dif-
ferential is between €15 and
€20, according to Hanker.
Slow, deliberate transition
Slovakia’s transition to
the digital format has been
taking place gradually since
2007. The first step was to
make digital television avail-
able at previously unused
broadcast frequencies within
the so-called transition mul-
tiplex.
Towercom,
provides television broad-
which
casting throughout Slovakia,
launched the commercial op-
eration of the first, transition
multiplex on December 22,
2009. Later, an additional two
multiplexes were launched.
“The first transition mul-
tiplex is currently available
to 94 percent of Slovakia,”
Michal Šuran, marketing
manager of Towercom, told
The Slovak Spectator, refer-
ring to the coverage in
December 2010. “Thus, the
overwhelming majority of
viewers can use the digital
terrestrial broadcast with all
its advantages… the coverage
of the second, commercial
Photo: Jana Liptáková
multiplex now achieves
about 8 percent and the cov-
erage of the third, public
multiplex about 17 percent.
Further widening of the cov-
erage of the DVB-T signal will
be possible only after freeing
up frequencies when the ana-
logue terrestrial broadcast is
terminated.”
According to Šuran, the
switch-off of large analogue
transmitters, will free up fre-
quencies for the extension of
DVB-T that is planned for the
second quarter of 2011. So far,
two small transmitters have
been switched off and so far
nine Slovak villages have
solely digital broadcasting
and no analogue TV signal.
See OFF pg 8
ADVERTISEMENT
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A goldmine for employers
9th - 10th March 2011, Incheba, Bratislava
6th - 7th April 2011, Hotel Centrum, Košice
January 10 – January 16, 2011
FOCUS shorts
PR agencies compete for awards
SLOVAKIA’S Association of
Public Relations (APRSR), in
cooperation with the
monthly Stratégie, has an-
nounced the second year of
the Prokop PR projects com-
petition, Stratégie wrote in
its December issue. The main
aim of the contest is to ac-
knowledge the best original
PR projects carried out in
Slovakia in 2010. The criteria
for the contest are innova-
tion, creativity and flexibil-
ity of each PR project when
documented results are
taken into account.
“The aim of the next year
of the Prokop competition is
to link to the successful first
year of this project and in-
troduce the best communic-
ations campaigns carried out
New owner for Pravda daily in 2010
ONE of the leading Slovak
dailies, Pravda, changed
hands last year. The
Pravda.sk internet news
portal reported on March 23,
2010, that Karol Biermann
became the new owner of the
Pravda daily via the purchase
of the publishing houses Per-
ex, which publishes the daily,
and Avízo by Florena. Florena
is owned by Biermann, the
SITA newswire wrote.
Finnish publishing house sells titles
THE FINNISH publishing
group Sanoma Magazines In-
ternational sold its publish-
ing business-to-business
activities in Slovakia to the
Ecopress publishing house in
mid 2010, the SITA newswire
reported. No financial details
were revealed. Ecopress pub-
lishes, among others, the
Hospodárske Noviny finan-
cial daily.
The divesture of Sanoma
Magazines Slovakia is an im-
portant step for Sanoma
Magazines International in
its strategy of focusing on
UNIQUE JOB
OPPORTUNITY FAIR
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www.ndk.sk
7
by Slovak agencies to the ex-
pert as well as general
public,” said APRSR presid-
ent Peter Fecko.
Agencies can submit
projects up to January 20 and
awards will be handed out at
a ceremony on February 10.
Last year, 10 agencies
entered 23 projects in the
competition.
Seesame Communication
Experts became the most
successful agency when it
won two categories: Corpor-
ate Communications, and
Community Relations and
Internal Communication.
First place in the third main
category, Business to Busi-
ness PR and Business to Con-
sumer PR, went to AMI
Communications Slovakia.
Pravda.sk reported that
Florena’s purchase of both
companies from the Brit-
ish media group Daily Mail
& General Trust, which
owns the Daily Mail
newspaper in Great Bri-
tain, was mediated by the
Slovak financial group
J&T.
The former British
owners had been publish-
ing Pravda since mid-2006.
core products and core mar-
kets, the company said.
In Slovakia, Sanoma
Magazines Slovakia’s portfo-
lio was limited to magazines
(Stratégie, Obchod, Horeca
Magazine, Zdravotnícke Nov-
iny, Sestra, Diabetik, RUN
and others) and magazine ex-
tensions (like conferences) in
the business-to-business
market.
Sanoma remains present
in Slovakia through its home
deco portal, Tvojdom.sk, and
a building service website,
eStranky.sk.
21373
8 January 10 – January 16, 2011
OFF: Information is 'weak and late'
Continued from pg 7
The composition of TV
channels that will be available
via individual multiplexes is
not final and is still undergo-
ing change. Currently, the
first multiplex contains the
first and second channels of
the public-service broadcaster
(RTVS) along with private TV
stations Markíza and JOJ. The
second multiplex offers
Markíza and its TV Doma
channel as well as JOJ and its
JOJ Plus channel. The third,
public multiplex offers all
three RTVS channels. Of all the
Slovak TV stations with na-
tionwide coverage only the
TA3 news channel is missing
from the three multiplexes.
“The composition of mul-
tiplexes depends on an agree-
ment with broadcasters,” said
Šuran. "The digital multi-
plexes already contain TV sta-
tions of almost all the nation-
wide Slovak broadcasters. If
another broadcaster is inter-
ested in broadcasting in a na-
tionwide multiplex, we are
ready to offer it our services.”
Towercom expects anoth-
er enrichment of digital ter-
restrial broadcasts with the
transition of regional TV sta-
tions to DVB-T, for which local
digital multiplexes are being
allocated. Radio stations may
also be components of the
multiplexes and it is expected
that the public multiplex will
offer public-service radio in
Antennas will have to be re-directed.
addition to the TV channels.
Towercom expects that
privately-owned radio sta-
tions will be interested in be-
ing broadcast via the commer-
cial multiplexes.
Towercom expects that
the overall TV signal coverage
within Slovakia will not actu-
ally change and be at approx-
imately the same level as be-
fore the transition to the di-
gital format.
Hanker said the change in
format may bring a problem in
areas in which their analogue
broadcast signal was weaker,
with a lower quality picture,
explaining that since digital
television brings “either 100
percent or nothing” this may
BUSINESS FOCUS
Photo: Sme
mean than in poor reception
areas digital broadcasting
could improve quality or res-
ult in nothing at all being
available.
The information cam-
paign about the switch-off of
analogue television has so far
not been very intensive and
some affected villages have
already complained that they
received information too late.
According to Zive.sk, Tower-
com has chosen the process of
informing affected com-
munities and their citizens
only some days before switch-
ing-off of analogue broadcasts.
The website stated that
Towercom believes earlier in-
formation would be no more
effective as people do not pay
attention to the impending
transition until they are dir-
ectly affected.
Together with the state,
Towercom has prepared an in-
formation campaign which,
according to Zive.sk, includes
the visit of a minibus to af-
fected villages. It provides de-
tailed information and advises
people on how to re-direct an-
tennas as well as selling set-
top boxes and new antennas.
Mayors of municipalities also
receive information letters
and a package of posters for
their communities.
Hanker regards the cam-
paign to inform people about
the transition to digital tele-
vision as being weak and late,
saying this may lead to hasty
decisions by people to buy
new devices without properly
thinking over what kind of
functions they want in their
new TV sets. He added that an
expert is also sometimes re-
quired for the proper setting
of the antenna and that some
citizens may “swallow the
bait” of companies offering
different ways of receiving
the TV signal.
“Such a campaign should
have started in affected local-
ities at least two months
before,” Hanker told The
Slovak Spectator. “[In that
way] it might have pulsed,
that is weakened two or three
times and then strengthened
again.”
FOCUS shorts
Gučík appointed new head of TA3
MICHAL Gučík replaced
Matej Ribanský as director
general of the TV news chan-
nel TA3 as of January 1, the
TASR newswire reported.
Pavel Komorník, the legal
representative of TA3, which
is part of Grafobal Group,
presented the appointment
of Gučík as a major contribu-
tion to the TV station, point-
ing to his long-term opera-
tional and media experience.
Ribanský is heading to a new
position at private station TV
Markíza.
Gučík sees his appoint-
ment as a challenge, and says
he wants to keep news cover-
age at its current high level.
“I plan to continue devel-
oping new technologies, in-
ternet, elevation of the qual-
ity of broadcasting and
strengthening of the inter-
Ringier Axel Springer buys Azet.sk
EUROPEAN media giant Ring-
ier Axel Springer Media AG has
purchased a majority stake in
the most visited web portal in
Slovakia, buying 70 percent of
Azet.sk via its Slovak publish-
ing subsidiary in mid Decem-
ber. The price of the transac-
tion was not disclosed, the
SITA newswire wrote.
The director of Axel
activity between TA3 and
viewers,” said Gučík.
Gučík previously acted as
the creative director and
owner of an advertising
agency, Roko, known for
working with Vladimír
Mečiar’s Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia (HZDS).
Before the 2010 general elec-
tion Gučík was purportedly
involved in the election cam-
paign of the Slovak National
Party (SNS), Korzár, the
Košice daily wrote. He was a
popular actor before the fall
of the communist regime.
Ribanský was appointed
TA3 director in February
2009. He will enter top man-
agement of the CME TV sta-
tion in Slovakia where he
takes over as director of the
centre for advertising, repla-
cing Martin Hauptvogel.
The founder and director
of Azet.sk, Milan Dubec,
said a common aim of both
partners is to continue the
expansion of Azet.sk’s on-
line business and build
market share.
Ringier Axel Springer
Media AG was established in
2010 by the merger of Swiss
Ringier and German Axel

MEDIA: Using the audience as a source Springer Media AG, Florian

Continued from pg 6
On the other hand, Bella said, the
British media can only dream about hav-
ing several thousand online discussion
entries under an article on their websites
as often happens on some Slovak and
Czech news servers, such as sme.sk or
idnes.cz, or about having hundreds of
their own readers acting as bloggers.
“I believe that Slovak media are not
lagging behind significantly,” Bella told
The Slovak Spectator. “The differences
are rather caused by the diverse use of
technologies – for instance Twitter is the
main flash news source on the web in the
Anglophone world while it is only rarely
used here and thus [Slovak] media don’t
pay much attention to it and rather focus
on Facebook.”
The audience as journalists?
The Slovak blogosphere has several
times proved to have a powerful voice
and an ability to report on important top-
ics that journalists might have over-
looked in their work.
Most recently, such an example came
to life on the pages of the Sme daily when
it ran a series of stories on the mistreat-
ment of patients suffering from bedsores
in Slovak hospitals. The stories stirred
considerable interest among the general
public, provoked some conflicts between
the daily’s journalists and hospital au-
thorities, and in the end led to the Health
Ministry deciding to use the occurrence
and treatment of bedsores as an addition-
al indicator of the quality of hospitals.
Sme admitted that its engagement in
the topic was inspired by one of the 17,000
bloggers who operate within a blog re-
gistered on the blog.sme.sk platform.
The user-generated content that
Slovak media are working with,
however, is far from restricted to blogs.
According to Bella, there are mul-
tiple examples of good practice in using
social media in journalism in Slovakia:
there are many successful Facebook
pages created by the Sme daily, and pub-
lic-service radio’s Radio FM channel was
the first to do first-class work on Twit-
ter.
“Several editorials such as the Nový
Čas daily or Markíza TV with their
somreporter.sk, a twin of CNN’s iReport
project, work systematically with user-
generated content,” Bella said.
Mining social networks
Major media organisations such as
the BBC employ specialised teams with
the purpose of finding and managing
user-generated content.
Eltringham, who leads such a team
in the BBC, says that social newsgather-
ing involves finding newsworthy stories
that come directly to the media organ-
isation or actively searching for such
stories across social media.
“In the event of a breaking story the
first thing we would do is to ask our own
audience if they had experience with
that particular event,” Eltringham ex-
plained. “So on our own website we
would ask people what they know and to
send in videos or stills. And in the mean-
time we would search all media plat-
forms through core basic searches, look-
ing for content on YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter, across the spectrum.”
He added however that before pub-
lishing content from users, the appro-
priate BBC department runs a process of
authentication and verification to estab-
lish whether the content is genuine –
through basic journalistic methods.
“We would never publish or broad-
cast any content unless we’ve first
spoken to the person who has sent it in
or who took it or who owned that con-
tent in order to establish that it was
genuine,” Eltringham said.
In Slovak circumstances, it is un-
imaginable for the local media to have
whole departments to work with user-
generated content due to a lack of suffi-
cient resources. On the other hand, Bella
noted that Slovak media have the ad-
vantage of a relatively small audience
and for that reason the gap between me-
dia professionals and their audience is
not that huge. Many Slovak media pro-
fessionals have created big networks,
sometimes amounting to thousands of
people on Facebook, and these networks
have become one of the most important
sources for information and story tips.
Experts also say that the global trend
is making sure that all journalists have
the skills required to work with social
media rather than establishing special-
ised departments.
“I think we are absolutely clear in
our minds that everybody should be do-
ing this, and the ability to work properly
on the social media is something that
every single journalist should have,” El-
tringham stated.
“Social media are just another in-
formation source and the journalistic
work is about selecting the best of all
sources – so those who have managed
the work with numerous sources before
can get even better because they have
been given a new valuable source,” Bella
said. “But those who haven’t been man-
aging well even before might obviously
encounter even bigger problems.”
Fels, wrote in a press release
that this acquisition gives
the company a leading posi-
tion in the Slovak online
market, which is expected to
grow by 25 percent in coming
years. The penetration of
Azet.sk is currently more
than 75 percent of the popu-
lation, representing about 1.9
million real users.
“The portal with a wide
content focus excellently fits
with our strong media
brands and suitably expands
the existing portfolio in
Slovakia,” said Fels. He said
he was glad that the man-
agement team of Azet.sk
would support Ringier Axel
Springer in central and east-
ern Europe in innovations
and digitalisation.
Slovakia gets its own Forbes edition
DURING 2010, the Slovak
media market witnessed the
arrival of a Slovak edition of
the international business
magazine Forbes, and the
departure of the weekly
magazine Markíza.
Two issues of the Slovak
Forbes were published in
2010 and the third issue was
scheduled for publication on
January 7, 2011.
At the same time the
Slovak media market saw the
disappearance of Žurnál,
whose last issue was pub-
lished in December 2009, and
Markíza, in June 2010. Their
publishers halted both
Springer. It publishes the
most popular daily newspa-
per in Slovakia, Nový Čas,
the weekly Život, monthlies
Eva and Geo, and runs web
portals Čas.sk, Lesk.sk and
Adam.sk, among others.
Ringier Axel Springer
AG also acquired a share in
CPress Media, with the
Zive.sk and Bazar.sk sites.
Azet.sk is a popular in-
ternet portal in Slovakia,
operating a kind of Slovak
Facebook, Pokec.sk, and a
news portal, Aktualne.sk. It
employs about 160 people.
Azet.sk began looking
for a new majority owner or
investor in spring 2010,
with one shareholder say-
ing they would not like to
sell for less than €30 mil-
lion.
magazines due to insuffi-
cient advertising income.
New magazines will con-
tinue to arrive in 2011. Three
new magazines on cooking
and gardening began public-
ation in Slovakia as of Janu-
ary 4, 2011. All three are
already well-established in
the Czech Republic, where
they have been published for
five years, the TASR news-
wire wrote.
Their publisher, Genius
Press, is crossing the borders
of the Czech Republic for the
first time.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports

AWRY: Slovak police under fire again
after botched sting operation
Continued from pg 2
Police criticised
The Slovak police have
since come in for strong cri-
ticism in both Slovakia and
the Czech Republic. The
Czech media wrote that the
truck driver had fallen victim
to a bungled police opera-
tion, which they compared
to an incident in early 2010
which resulted in explosive
material being carried aboard
an aeroplane from Poprad to
Ireland by an unwitting
Slovak citizen.
Former interior minister
Robert Kaliňák (Smer) called
on the Interior Ministry and
the police to apologise for
their conduct. He claimed the
Slovak authorities had lost
contact with their Turkish
counterparts a day after the
truck left Dunajská Streda,
and under such circum-
stances were obliged to halt
the action, the TASR news-
wire reported.
While the Czech police
were waiting for explana-
tions from their Slovak coun-
terparts, the Slovak Interior
Ministry announced that it
would demand an explana-
tion from the Turks.
Slovaks blame Turks
Slovak Police Corps pres-
ident Jaroslav Spišiak and
Interior Minister Daniel
Lipšic both blamed the Turk-
ish side for the failure of the
operation. Slovakia is plan-
ning to file an official
protest, saying the Turkish
police marred the operation,
which had been intended to
bust an international drug
gang. Instead, two people
were taken into custody in
Slovakia, but the organisers
in Turkey were not caught.
“We have revealed an im-
portant group of drug produ-
cers and we wanted to also
reveal the higher layers, the
big fish,” Lipšic said, as
quoted by the SITA newswire,
adding that this case proves
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Former interior minister Robert Kaliňák of Smer.
Current Police Corps president Jaroslav Spišiak.
that Turkey is not yet ready to
join the EU.
Police president Spišiak
stressed that the Slovak po-
lice did not put the driver in
danger, as they did not
choose the shipper. He said
that if the police had not or-
ganised the operation, the
driver could have been de-
tained in Turkey and faced a
life sentence.
“In fact we saved him,”
Spišiak said.
According to Spišiak, the
problem arose when the
shipment arrived at a cus-
toms warehouse in Turkey
and the Turkish police “star-
ted behaving strangely”. He
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Photo: SITA
Photo: TASR
said they checked whether
the Red Crescent NGO had
really ordered the disinfect-
ant that was declared in the
customs declaration, even
though “they must have
known it was only a ficti-
tious declaration”. Spišiak
claimed the Turkish police
breached the agreement ac-
cording to which they were
supposed to let the driver un-
load the cargo and return to
Slovakia.
According to Spišiak, the
operation was agreed on by
seven countries, and came
within the remit of Eurojust,
the EU umbrella group for
fighting international crime.
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It observed the UN Conven-
tion Against Illicit Traffic in
Narcotics, he added.
Consequences
The Office of the General
Prosecutor confirmed to the
media that the operation
was supervised by a special
prosecutor and was fully in
line with the law. The meth-
od of controlled delivery was
used in order to enable the
police to identify not only
the persons who directly
manipulated the cargo but
also those who organised
and managed the deal.
According to police, a
controlled delivery has been
used at least five times in the
last four years, most recently
in 2009, when the Czech Re-
public asked Slovak police to
monitor a car which trans-
ported heroin from Turkey to
the Czech Republic via Slov-
akia.
While Turkey has still not
provided an official explana-
tion of why their police de-
tained the driver, Slovakia’s
representative with Eurojust,
Ladislav Hamran, confirmed
to the Sme daily that he had
already received “certain
answers” as to why the driver
was detained.
The case might result in
Slovakia being obliged to pay
damages to the driver and
the company that owns the
truck. The driver, although
released from custody, was
expelled by Turkey and
banned from re-entering the
country for one year. That
means he will lose his job, as
the company he works for
specialises only in transport
to Turkey.
The company’s owner,
Martin Pavlát, said the truck
is still being held in Turkey.
He said he has received no
help from Slovakia, and com-
plained about suggestive re-
marks by Spišiak that his
company might be a part of
an organised crime group,
the Hospodárske Noviny
daily reported.
Take your
chance
and place your
classified advertisement.
For information call:
02 / 59 233 311,
or e-mail:
marta.fukasova@spectator.sk
C3665
January 10 – January 16, 2011 9
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10 January 10 – January 16, 2011 CULTURE

Pilgrimage to Rajecká Lesná Western SLOVAKIA

Bratislava
l CLASSICAL MUSIC: Pocta
Lisztovi / Tribute to Liszt – This
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
concert by pianist László
Borbély brings works by Franz
Liszt including Aux Cypres de
la Villa d’Este II: Thrénodie;
Bagatelle sans Tonalité (The
Fourth Mephistopheles-
Waltz); Präludium und Fuge
über das Thema B-A-C-H /
Fantasy and Fugue on the
Theme B-A-C-H; as well as
works by György Ligeti and
Olivier Messiaen.
Starts: January 11, 19:00;
Slovak Radio Concert Hall
Dvorana, Zochova 1. Admis-
sion: €3-€5. Tel: 02/2047-5233;
www.filharm.sk, www.even-
tim.sk. THE LEGENDARY Slovak rock/jazz band Collegium Musicum,
which plays a fusion of these genres with unbelievable ease and
Bratislava
IN THE 17TH and 18th centur- sites and each year pilgrims several dozen kilometres, l FILM FESTIVAL: Japonský mastery, gives its Novoročný koncert / New Year’s Concert on
ies religious pilgrimages from a wide region headed to with only the ill and the eld- filmový festival 2011 / Japan- January 11 in the Big Concert Hall at Slovak Radio, Mýtna 1, Brat-
started to be organised on the sites. These entourages erly having some means of ese Film Festival 2011 – This islava; tickets cost €15 and are available through Ticketportal.
Slovak territory transport. movie festival presents five For more information, please visit www.ticketportal.sk or
thanks to several This postcard from Japanese contemporary films,
HISTORY TALKS
www.collegiummusicum.sk. Photo: ČTK
monastic orders. the 1920s was made by dating from 1987 to 2008 and
The destinations famous photographer ranging from poetic romance
of these pilgrim- Karol Plicka. It shows to epic heroic saga: Seaside until January 23; Galéria Banská Bystrica
ages were places a pilgrimage to Scenes; Divine Sword; Scarred NOVA, Baštová 2. Admission: l BENEFIT BALL: Sen a
Angels; The Youth of Miss Et- free. Tel: 02/5443-3039; www. fantázia secesie / Dream and
associated with legends of were colourful and very var- Rajecká Lesná, the former suko Kamiya; and Without galeria-nova.sk. Fantasy of Art Nouveau - The
appearing saints, of sick per- ied; festively dressed pil- Frivald. Boys in traditional Scruples. Films are in Japanese 2nd benefit city ball offers
sons being miraculously grims sang songs typical for folk costumes are walking – with English subtitles. Bratislava swing, folklore, modern dance
cured, or of curative waters their specific region. barefoot – from the village of Starts: January 12-14; l EXHIBITION: Autoportréty / and music, and much more.
rising out of the earth. Most of the participants Fačkov, several kilometres Mladosť cinema, Hviezdosla- Self-Portraits – This collection Starts: January 14, 20:00;
Chapels and churches were in these pilgrimages simply away. vovo Square 14. Admission: is a selection of self-portraits ECC, nám. Slobody 3. Admis-
built to commemorate these walked, sometimes as far as By Branislav Chovan free. Tel: 02/5980-0100; www.s by Slovak and foreign artists of sion: €40. Tel: 048/4155-085;
k.emb-japan.go.jp/event_jff2 the younger generation (Lucia www.pkobb.sk
011.html. Dovičáková, Jarmila
ADVERTISEMENT
Džuppová, Martin Me- Eastern SLOVAKIA
PROGRAM Slovak National Theatre Bratislava licherčík, Alex Mirutziu from
OPERA and BALLET l CLASSICAL MUSIC: Voci da Romania, and Erik Šille and Košice
JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 30 Camera – The artists from the Marianne Vlaschits from Aus- l FASHION: Art in the Fash-
SND New Building SND Historic Building
Opera of the Slovak National tria), showing the issue of ion – In cooperation with the
Theatre (SND) have arranged a identity, public and intimate, Infiniti media agency and hos-
Opera and Ballet Hall Georges Bizet chamber matinée concert con- in all its aspects. ted by Jan Kaňourek from
TUE P. Hammel, M. Radačovský, P. Lančarič:
11.1. Everest
FRI G. Puccini:
14.1. Tosca
19:00
B
19:00
O
Carmen O opera, B ballet sisting of songs by Gustav
Mahler, Johannes Brahms and
M. P. Mussorgsky. J. Benci, J.
Open: Monday-Friday
15:00-19:00 from January 10-
21; KROKUS gallery, 1st May
Prague, designers Louisa
Dvorak (US), Lýdia Kavková
(Košice), Baldinini (Italy),
SUN Gala evening: 20:00 Guest performance Győri Balett 10:30
Ďurčo, and D. Hamarová will Square 3. Admission: free. Tel: Matěj Ruppert and Tereza
16.1. Crystal Wings Voci da Camera O be accompanied on piano by R. 02/2072-8131; www.krokus- Černochová (Prague) show
MON on January 22, 2011, at 19:00 Giuseppe Verdi: 19:00 Pechanec and J. Nagy Juhász. galeria.sk. audiences their designs.
17.1. New Building Nabucco O Starts: January 16, 10:30; Starts: January 14, 20:00;
TUE Giuseppe Verdi: 19:00 V. Bellini: I puritani SND historical building, Hvie- Central SLOVAKIA Spoločenský pavilón, Trieda
18.1. I Due Foscari O Carmen, a French opéra comique by George Bizet has been zdoslavovo Square. Admis- SNP 61. Admission: €20. Tel: 02/
also a strong isnpiration for a different medium – dance.
WED W. A. Mozart: 19:00 Passionate Carmen performed by Hungarian Győri Balett
sion: €15. Tel: 02/2047-2272, Žilina 5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.
19.1. The Magic Flute O company founded in 1979 is considered to be the most 02/2047-2299; www.snd. sk. ICE-HOCKEY LEAGUE: MsHk
THU G. Puccini: 19:00 groundbreaking and exceptional perfmormance. DOXXbet Žilina vs MHC Košice
20.1. Turandot O Enjoy it in Bratislava´s Slovak National Theatre. Bratislava Mountfield Martin – These two l EXHIBITION: Kassapoint –
FRI P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. Petipa, L.I. Ivanov: 19:00 l EXHIBITION: Palo Macho - traditional local rivals meet in This exhibition, a reaction to
21.1. Swan Lake B Photo: C. Bachratý
Nové v Nove / The New in Nova the 52nd round of the SLOVN- recent developments in Slov-
SAT Guest performance 19:00 Vincenzo Bellini: 19:00
22.1. Carmen B I puritani O – Palo Macho works with sheet AFT ice hockey Extra League. ak-Hungarian relations, fo-
SUN glass and creates double-sided Starts: January 14, 17:00; cuses on national identity and
23.1. paintings which become re- Vojtech Závodský ice hockey on the historical and ethnic
MON Georges Bizet: 19:00 liefs. This exhibition repres- stadium, Športová 5. Admis- specifics of Košice. Exhibiting
24.1. Carmen O ents his most recent works. sion: €2-€3. Tel: 041/5621-676; artists are of - at least partial -
TUE Giuseppe Verdi: 19:00 Tchikovsky, Petipa, Ivanov: Open: Tue-Sun 13:00-18:00 www.mshkzilina.sk. Hungarian origin.
25.1. La Traviata O Swan Lake
Open: Tue-Sun 16:00-20:00
WED G. Puccini: 19:00 until January 23; Make Up Gal-
26.1. La Bohéme O lery, Kasárne Kulturpark, Ku-
THU P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. Petipa, L.I. Ivanov: 19:00 kučínova 2. Admission: free.
27.1. Swan Lake B
More info: www.makeupcol-
FRI Ch. Guonod: 19:00
28.1. Faust O lective.org.
SAT Giuseppe Verdi: 19:00
29.1. I Due Foscari O Photo: C. Bachratý Prešov
SUN V. Patejdl, L. Vaculík: 11:00, 17:00 l EXHIBITION: sejfBOOK – A
30.1. Photo: Győri Balett Snow White and the Seven Racers B collection of works by young
Take the advantage of this special promotion and enjoy the winter evenings at one of our ballet
artists from eastern Slovakia
and opera performances!
that shows recent trends and
unconventional works of art,
according to the curator
Everest: January 11th, 2011 B
Magdaléna Bačová. The
Tosca: January 14th, 2011 O
project includes 17 authors
I due Foscari : January 18th, 2011 O
from the surrounding regions.
The Magic Flute : January 19th, 2011 O
Open: Tue, Wed, Fri
Turandot : January 20th, 2011 O
9:00-17:00, Thu 9:00-18:00, Sun
THE KOPPLOVA vila venue of Trnava’s Ján Koniarek Gallery, at 14:30-18:30 until January 16;
Present this coupon at the box office to get a 20% discount on the purchase of two tickets for 20% Discount Voucher
for the Readers Zelený kríček 3, hosts an exhibition of Miloš Balgavý’s ceramic Šariš Gallery, Hlavná 51. Ad-
performances mentioned above. The discount is not applicable with any other promotions
of Slovak Spectator and pottery works until January 30. His exhibition is named mission: €1. Tel: 051/7725- 423;
and discount offers. We look forward to seeing you!
Voľná tvorba & dizajn / Free Creation & Design and the curator is www.sgpresov.sk.
Tickets available at: SND Box offices: Historic Building, Hviezdoslavovo Square, Bratislava, 00421 2 204 94 290 www.ticketportal.sk Dana Janáčková. For more information, please visit www.gjk.sk
New Building, Pribinova 17, Bratislava, 00421 2 204 72 298, 204 72 299, e-mail: rezervacie@snd.sk www.snd.sk
or call 033/ 511-659. Photo: Courtesy of J. Koniarek Gallery By Zuzana Vilikovská
HOT LINE: +421 2 204 72 297, information and offer for tickets MON - FRI 9:30 - 17:30
SP 90250/6

N A M E D A Y J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakia Dá‰a Malvína Ernest Rastislav Radovan Dobroslav Kristína

can now be found at www.spectator.sk.

January 10 January 11 January 12 Januaury 13 January 14 January 15 January 16

A Slovak’s name day (meniny) is as important as his or her birthday. It is traditional to present friends or co-workers with a small gift,
In cooperation with the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute such as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)

Learning languages
makes us global citizens
Georges Lemieux,
charge d'affaires of
the Canadian
Embassy, discusses
the importance of
learning languages
with Zvolen students
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
THE CHOCOLATE bar, the
electron microscope, the light
bulb, insulin and the Java
programming language as
well as the zipper, the baseball
and the kayak were all inven-
ted by Canadians. And the
plentiful list of well-known
contemporary Canadian per-
sonalities includes, among
others, poet and singer Le-
onard Cohen, jazz pianist Di-
ana Krall (of Slovak ancestry)
and movie director James
Cameron. But these facts were
not the most important mes-
sage that students of the
Ľudovít Štúr secondary school
in Zvolen absorbed during
their discussion with Georges
Lemieux, chargé d’affaires of
the Canadian Embassy.
“When we know many for-
eign languages we become cit-
izens of the world; we become
integrated and more involved
in the affairs of the world,”
Lemieux said as he told the
students about the importance
of learning other languages.
Lemieux met the Zvolen
students as part of the Bring-
ing the World to the Classroom
project developed by The Slov-
ak Spectator, several foreign
embassies in Slovakia and
Sugarbooks, a distributor of
textbooks. He emphasised
that the process of studying a
foreign language is just as im-
portant as the ultimate goal.
“The way we learn a new
language potentially changes
the way we think and the way
we look at our lives,” said
Lemieux, noting that some of
these thoughts had also reson-
ated in the essays that the stu-
dents wrote that responded to
the provocative question: is
knowing a foreign language a
requirement only for the elite?
In the process of studying
another language one cannot
help but also learn
something about the culture
and traditions of the people
who use that language,
Lemieux stated, adding that
it is an advantage when
someone is exposed to those
who speak a different lan-
guage at an early age.
“In my case, I did not
really meet anyone who was
not French Canadian, white
and Catholic until I was nearly
16 years old,” said Lemieux,
who today speaks French, his
mother tongue, as well as Eng-
lish, German, Spanish and
some Czech.
CULTURE / NEWS
Zvolen students discuss learning languages with Georges Lemieux. Photo: Ján Šugár
In their essays some of Lemieux listed several im- Students note the
the students discussed portant factors for the stu- importance of English
whether money, time and dents to consider, including a
the ability to travel are pre- recent survey which found Student Jakub Dycha
conditions for learning for- that about 65 percent of com- wrote in his essay that how
eign languages. The response panies in Slovakia had a for- people thought about for-
that Lemieux offered to the eign language requirement for eign languages “has always
students was that “at the end employees. been strongly influenced by
of the day if there is a will, “The internet is so power- the era in which they lived”
there is a way” while em- ful and yet to benefit from it suggesting that in the past it
phasising that lack of money completely English has be- was not necessary or was
is not an obstacle to learning come a key issue,” Lemieux simply impossible to learn
more than one’s mother
tongue. But Dycha wrote
“The way we learn a new language that now “development and
progress of technology has
potentially changes the way we think” literally forced people to
learn international lan-
guages, directly or
foreign languages. He added said while referring to another indirectly” adding that even
that young people’s exposure famous Canadian, futurist operating common things
to English today is much Marshal McLuhan, who sug- such as computers and nu-
broader because of the inter- gested in his 1989 book that a merous home appliances
net and better communica- global village would bring us would be nearly impossible
tions. all together but to do so we without a basic knowledge
When encouraging the must speak a common lan- of English.
learning of foreign languages, guage. According to another
student, Pavol Krajči, elit-
ism has disappeared from
studying languages and it
has become accessible for
ordinary people. Alexandra
Mojžišová wrote that
without knowledge of for-
eign languages young
people would hardly be able
to use the study and educa-
tion opportunities offered by
some European Union pro-
grammes.
The Bringing the World
to the Classroom project has
the goal of promoting great-
er openness to different cul-
tures while motivating stu-
dents to pursue further edu-
cation. The project sponsors
believe that discussions in
the English language at
Slovak secondary schools
with personalities from the
international community
can inspire young people’s
understanding of issues that
are crucial for a tolerant so-
ciety, one that welcomes di-
verse cultures and is capable
Georges Lemieux accepts a film award on behalf of actor Robert of participating in interna-
Naylor at the Bratislava Film Festival. Photo: SITA tional discourse.
January 10 – January 16, 2011
RCh: Decisive
steps needed
Continued from pg 3
Obviously, for some of
my colleagues this sounded
like an offence against the
Slovak majority, that Slovak
institutions could be sanc-
tioned if a Hungarian, a
Ruthenian, a Ukrainian or a
Roma cannot get informa-
tion in their respective lan-
guages. The Slovak mental-
ity doesn’t mind it happen-
ing vice-versa, but when it is
the majority that is to be
punished, all of a sudden we
don’t like it.
TSS: One of the main
changes you are introdu-
cing in the draft amend-
ment of the law on minor-
ity languages is lowering
the quorum for speaking a
minority language from
the current 20 percent to
10 percent. Why is this
change necessary and how
will it influence the life of
minorities in a practical
way?
RCh: All international
recommendations say the
quorum should be lowered.
Even in 1999 when the law
was first drafted 20 percent
looked too high. But experi-
ence has shown that it’s not
a good quorum, as it still al-
lows minorities to assimil-
ate. International recom-
mendations that we have re-
ceived talk about 10 percent,
arguing that minority lan-
guages require increased
protection since their posi-
tion in the state is not equal
to that of the state language.
I suspected that it
wouldn’t be easily accepted
by many citizens and politi-
cians but the proposed quor-
um is not that low. Nota
bene, it doesn’t concern the
Hungarian minority as much
as it concerns the others.
Currently, under the 20-per-
cent quorum, it’s about 520
municipalities with Hun-
garian language and with the
quorum lowered to 10 per-
cent it would be another 30,
less than a percent more. But
it gets interesting consider-
ing the German minority,
which is much smaller. Cur-
rently, there is only one
German-speaking municip-
ality, Krahule in central
Slovakia, but with the
10-percent quorum it would
go up to 10 or 11 municipalit-
ies. With the Croatian
minority, it could affect two
of Bratislava’s municipal
parts, Jarovce and Čunovo.
Considering the Ruthenian
minority, we propose count-
ing them together with the
Ukrainians for the purposes
of minority language usage,
which would mean that even
the town of Humenné would
become officially bilingual.
The problem with the
Roma minority in this re-
spect is that a whole new
infrastructure for their lan-
guage would need to be es-
tablished. In that case we
11
would consider some way
to postpone the practical
implication of the law, to
create space for the educa-
tion of Roma intelligence
that would be able to satur-
ate this infrastructure. It’s
not an easy package, which
also requires higher
budgets for the municipal-
ities in question.
TSS: Your office also deals
with some problems linked
to the Roma minority.
Which of them do you con-
sider the most serious?
RCh: The Roma agenda is
presently distributed among
several offices and I think
that it requires a more com-
prehensive approach. In the
past 21 years the state has
failed in social policy. There
is some kind of economic
egoism among the non-
Roma and the problems of
Roma shrink to the problem
of poverty. And since we
cover up the economic diffi-
culties and failures of the
state, the solutions that are
proposed are often racist,
ideological, and directed
against the poorest citizens
of this country.
‘Socially-excluded com-
munities’ is only a nice name
for shantytowns, where
people who have no possibil-
ity to make their way out of
the vicious circle live. And
since there is no compre-
hensive approach to solving
their problems but each of-
fice is solving it in its narrow
department – in healthcare,
in schooling, in social affairs,
in justice – the solutions are
always just partial. In my
opinion we not only did not
move the problem of real so-
cialisation of Roma com-
munities forward in the past
20 years, but it even reached
‘red numbers’.
For the moment it’s
mainly civic associations that
take an interest in these is-
sues, based on the willing-
ness of some enthusiasts who
work within the Roma com-
munities, but there is no sys-
temic state approach. The
problem of the Roma minor-
ity cannot be solved by the
market, which some believe
is able to solve everything.
Apart from that, all the
programmes for Roma which
have been run until now were
about short-term solutions.
And this problem needs to be
solved in the long-run, and
comprehensively.
On the other hand, the
extreme poverty which we
are trying not to see in this
environment will continue
generating ever higher costs.
But money is not the biggest
problem. The problem is that
there is a lack of a long-term
concept and there is a lack of
policy experts who would
propose solutions.
To read the full interview with
Rudolf Chmel go to
www.spectator.sk.
12 January 10 – January 16, 2011 FEATURE

AROUND SLOVAKIA compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

Benefit for
prisoners
THE OLD

A muted New Year
in some cities
THE TRADITION of celebrat-
ing the end of one year and
the beginning of the next in
the company of crowds in the
street has become more pop-
ular in Slovakia over recent
years and continued in 2010
too. In the capital, Bratislava,
Mayor Milan Ftáčnik praised
the fireworks but expressed
regret at the poor visibility
caused by heavy fog. The
head of communications for
the city council, Milan Vajda,
explained to the SITA news-
In Košice, several thou-
sand people gathered around
the Immaculata sculptural
group in the Main Street to
take part in a party hosted by
Richard Hergott. As in Bratis-
lava, a new mayor, Košice’s
Richard Raši, personally took
part in the celebrations.
In Prešov, local bands en-
tertained people; and after
midnight a disco continued
well into the small hours.
Banská Bystrica welcomed in
the New Year with a pro-
A traditional holiday season spread from Strečno in central Slovakia.
Hidden cakes and stolen
violins: New Year in Zemplín
THE FIRST day
enter the house on the first
Photo: TASR
that the man of the household
3
School
Brothers
dance group
held a char-
ity perform-
ance on January 6 in the
town of Námestovo to sup-
port the work of the Orava
Youth Centre (Oravské
centrum mládeže) in help-
ing youths with drug prob-
lems, homeless people, as
well as those in prison. The
fundraising programme is
traditionally organised for
January 6 as Epiphany, a
Slovak national holiday,
means for most people a
definite end of the holiday
season and a large-scale re-
turn of employees to work
and students back to school
and the replacement of the
festive atmosphere of pre-
vious weeks by everyday
normality. But the organ-

wire that this was caused by
significant humidity. The
numbers celebrating in the
streets were similar to previ-
ous years, with several thou-
sands attending, including
foreign visitors.
The evening show was
also comparable with recent
years. The main stage was in
Main Square, while Hviez-
doslavovo Square hosted a
simultaneous programme for
revellers. The main novelty
in Bratislava was the mass
launch of Chinese, or Kong-
ming, lanterns. The civic as-
sociation Želaj si (Make a
Wish) came up with the idea,
which found a ready re-
sponse among Bratislava in-
habitants as well as visitors.
Several hundred sky lan-
terns, which allow people to
make a wish and as they let
the lantern fly high into the
sky, floated off into the fog
from 23:00.
gramme full of music hosted
by Ján Snopko in SNP Square.
Originally, there should have
been no fireworks due to mu-
nicipal austerity measures,
but a local businessman and
councillor sponsored them at
the last moment.
In Trojičné (Trinity)
Square in Trnava, around 200
people celebrated the New
Year with a firework display,
only to leave soon after-
wards. The city council de-
cided not to offer any further
programme, SITA wrote. For
years, Trnava has been the
only regional centre with no
Silvester (New Year’s Eve)
celebrations other than fire-
works. However, this year
Žilina too, after two years of
hosting a wider range of
events, had only fireworks.
Incoming Mayor Igor Choma
decided to cancel the celebra-
tions due to the city’s poor
financial situation.
1
of the New Year
in the Zemplín
region in the
easternmost
part of Slovakia
had many folklore traditions.
People, of course, wished each
other everything good in the
coming year, but they also ob-
served many customs which
they believed would bring a
prosperous farm as well as
family health and cohesion.
“The first day of the New
Year had a special power, vari-
ous bans on specific activities
were connected with it, oth-
erwise the household or the
farm would not fare well,”
Štefan Kocák of the
Hornozemplínske osvetové
stredisko (Upper Zemplín
Education Centre) in Vranov
nad Topľou told the TASR
newswire.
He said one tradition was
not to borrow anything on the
first day of the year so that the
farm would be held together in
the coming year and nothing
would go amiss. He added that
it also had to be a man to first
day of the year and the home
had to be tidied up and clean.
“On this day, too, like dur-
ing Christmas, carol singers,
or well-wishers, went round
the houses in the village. Their
wishes were mostly oriented
towards the farm’s prosperity
but they also included wishes
of good luck, good health, and
peace and love in the family,”
Kocák explained.
He added that on New
Year’s Day, villagers ate pork,
symbolising wealth and
prosperity. Part of the menu
was also a cake called
“kračun”. Members of the
household ate some of the cake
already on Christmas Day but
that evening the head of the
house was supposed to put it
on the house-supporting tim-
ber – called the mešterná
hreda – and it was to be taken
down only on New Year’s Day.
Kocák explained that
Zemplín residents also
avoided eating poultry or fish
at the beginning of the year,
fearing that their luck would
“fly away or flow away” and
was supposed to get up first
and bring fresh water from the
stream for the whole family to
wash themselves before put-
ting on clean clothes and leav-
ing for the New Year’s mass at
the village church.
According to Kocák, mu-
nicipal representatives were
usually elected in the first
days of the year. “The muni-
cipal council used to hire and
choose the communal at-
tendant; administrative
companies elected the bell-
founder, sacristan and
gravedigger,” he said.
Kocák described another
curious local tradition from
when young men started or-
ganising balls at the start of
the 20th century, first on
January 6, the Epiphany, and
later on New Year’s Day. To
make sure they would have
musicians for their dance, the
young men took the violin
from the first violinist in the
local folk band to make sure
that the musicians would
really keep their promise and
play at the ball.
isers of the traditional
Orava event see things a
little bit differently.
“We have been organ-
ising the benefit pro-
gramme for this very day so
that we give the message to
people that this is not true,
that the Christmas season
did not end but rather con-
tinues. Although the decor-
ations at homes and in
streets disappear, the good
and the love in our hearts
that is shown by giving to
those in need cannot
disappear,” Branislav
Kožuch, the head of the
Orava Youth Centre told the
SITA newswire.
The dancers from the
Old School Brothers presen-
ted their show Z ulice hore
(Up from the Street) to those
who paid an admission fee
of €7 that will boost the
activities and work of the
youth centre. “There was
more than an hour of dance
and music where different
“street-dance styles” were
intermixed,” Kožuch said.

Calendar note: next total solar eclipse

due in Bratislava on May 16... 2227
DOZENS of Bratislavans was an interesting observation; we did

Lanterns with wishes: New Year in Bratislava.
2
arrived at the Danube
embankment on January
4 to watch the partial ec-
lipse of the sun in a pro-
gramme organised by the
Slovak National Museum (SNM). “In the
morning the weather looked ideal; the
sky was clear and Venus was shining very
clearly in it. But later when the sun star-
ted to rise, the air became warmer and fog
started to form,” Katarína Maštenová of
the Natural History Museum of the SNM
told the TASR newswire.
Because it was then not possible to
Photo: TASR see the solar eclipse from the banks of the
The solar eclipse in Stará Lesná. Photo: TASR
Danube, a group of enthusiasts drove to
Koliba, the highest peak in Bratislava. “It
not even have to use filters as the fog cre-
ated natural protection,” Maštenová
said. The partial solar eclipse was visible
from about 8:00 to 11:00.
The next partial solar eclipse in Slov-
akia will be around noon on March 20,
2015. The next total solar eclipse will be
on November 13 and 14, 2012 but it will be
visible only from northern Australia and
mostly uninhabited regions in the
southern Pacific. The next total solar ec-
lipse in Slovakia will come on October 7,
2135 but it will be visible only in northern
parts of Slovakia. The next total solar ec-
lipse in Bratislava will be on May 16, 2227.