The Slovakian public television station STV refused to air a Hungarian debate, Slovak Hungarian daily Új Szó reports. Leaders of the station explained their decision by saying that the program, called “Terítéken” (“On the Agenda”), was “unbalanced.”
Of the debate’s four participants, only one was a regional politician, Csaba Furik, Kassa County representative of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (MKP). The other participants were a writer, a political scientist and the assistant editor-in-chief of Új Szó. “The debate was not balanced; only one viewpoint was presented,” STV Spokesman Peter Susko told the paper.
The program will be overhauled, and ethnic Hungarian Editor Klára Debnár hopes that the station will change its decision.
Greetings from Slovakia.
Before a heated debate starts about this issue, I´d like to tell you more about our “public” television, the only reason it still calls itself public is because we have to pay for it. However the abbrevation of it´s name STV could be currently easily read as SMER TV rather than Slovak television as it was shown two weeks ago in their weekly political debat on Sunday “In five minutes twelve”. I find it hilarious this joke of a television calling something unbalanced after what they have prsented in the said show- our dear Mr. President (who claimed he feels like a member of SMER), our prime minister (SMER) and the chairman of the parliament (yeah, you guessed it right again SMER). These three people, especially Mr.Fico, have repeatedly verbally attacked politicians from opposition parties and pretty much Hungarians as well or truckers who were protesting in the streets of the country at that time, without the other side having any possibility to defend themselves. It´s pretty much the only tactics Fico has, to attack somebody in every press conference etc. he gives, and the one thing he never forgets is to remind us of how horrible Mr. Dzurinda and co. were and bringing up their mistakes everytime his idiotic government screws up. So that´s how STV´s idea about “balanced” shows looks like, the comittee that looks after this kind of stuff happening on TV has recieved around 75 complaints about the show. (usually they get around 200 a year all in all)
And the news on this channel are no better than that show was, it personally makes me want to vomit sometimes. Not many people even watch this TV and the majority of people over here wouldn´t mind at all if it ceased to exist. The reason why such an idiot like Fico still has such large support of people is a huge secret to me, one that your Viktor Orban seems to share.
I really like your blog! I just added you to my Yahoo News Reader. I love the suggestions and just trying to wrap my head around it, it’s mind boggling. Thanks