Legal and Ethical Regulation in Slovakia and Its Relation to Deliberative Communication

Abstract

The offered social-scientific analysis is based on a critical discussion of key problems present in the Slovak media environment, such as the ethical self-regulation of the media, freedom of expression, the right to obtain information, or the legal protection of the sources of information. The study also refers to available scholarly sources and the previously published body of knowledge to assess the development of the media system in Slovakia over the past 30 years, outlining the country’s (in)ability to foster deliberative communication and democracy. The results suggest that the legal and ethical aspects of the Slovak media system do support some of the principles of deliberative communication, specifically freedom of expression and free access to information; however, free speech is not sufficiently confronted with the boundaries of protecting privacy and human dignity to prevent defamation and hate speech. Media autonomy based on the possibility of self-regulation is not sufficiently developed either. A serious problem is the lack of transparency in the media.