EP: Commissioner Jourova Worried About Media Situation in Slovakia (2)

Brussels/Bratislava, March 12 (TASR-correspondent) - The European Parliament gears up to approve new legal norms aimed to protect journalists and media in the EU from political and other pressures on Wednesday (March 13), with the vote being preceded by a debate with Eurocommissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova who warned about the situation of media in Slovakia in particular, TASR learnt from its special correspondent in Brussels on Tuesday. When talking about the freedom of the media in the EU, Jourova switched to her native Czech [Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible languages for native speakers -ed.note] and said that she wanted to say a couple of words about the situation in Slovakia and the new Slovak Government's approach to the media. Jourova pointed out that journalist Jan Kuciak was murdered in 2018 in Slovakia "because he was a very capable journalist who was able to work with public information sources and covered corruption scandals with links also to political sphere". "We're talking about the freedom of the media here and when I think about the situation and development in Slovakia, I'd like to say that yesterday was too late already," said the Eurocommissioner. She added that she follows news on planned changes for Slovakia's RTVS public broadcaster and this is the issue worthy of attention not only by the European Commission. "It deserves attention of anyone who understands that every country should have genuinely strong public service media and not media that serve as nothing but loud mouthpieces for the party and the government," she warned. The new EU legislation will commit member states to protect the independence of the media from governmental, political, economic and private interventions. mf