Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Annex
Most Frequent Stereotypes Concerning Slovak-Hungarian Relations... of the freedom of thought, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression. This may be illustrated by an arrogant lash by Premier Fico who recently called a journalist an “idiot” just because he asked him an unpleasant question. Any restriction of the freedom to promulgate political opinions or the freedom of expression (be it by legislative means or through permanent ostracizing and intimidation) constitutes a grave encroachment on people’s natural freedoms to which government may resort only under critical circumstances and situations. Any impartial observer must admit that Slovakia is not in any crisis that would justify legal restrictions of the freedom of speech. Therefore, what we are witnessing here is in fact curtailing democracy and fundamental freedoms in the name of government power, which clearly shows signs of an authoritarian regime. The greatest problem is that delicateness of the issue of Slovak-Hungarian relations makes curtailing the freedom of expressionh with respect to ‘Hungarian’ displays more acceptable and even embraceable by the public opinion. In the end, any attack on any fundamental principle of liberal democracy negatively affects functioning of the system as a whole. From this perspective - especially if we realize that even the president of Slovakia (who is a lawyer himself) is riding this wave - the situation is very disturbing to say the least. In this context, let us again quote from the already mentioned letter by Max van der Stoel, former OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: “It goes without saying that citizens belonging to national minorities, just like the other citizens of Slovakia, have the duty to obey the laws of the country and are only allowed to try to change existing legislation by legal means. On the other hand, I would expect that your Government will agree that it would be undesirable to amend the penal code in such a way that articles in the press and statements before electronic media which are perceived to show disloyalty towards the State will be made a punishable act. Given that it is virtually impossible to define where criticism ends and where disloyalty begins, the danger would be great that new formulations of the law would go beyond the restrictions on the freedom of expression permitted under article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.” Stereotype 6: REcipRociTy When evaluating Slovak-Hungarian relations, politicians as well as journalists often call for implementing the principle of reciprocity. Sometimes, this view is presented in such a form that ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia 285
