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Pavol Dinka, Editor-in-Chief of Literarny tyzdennik (Literary Weekly), deputy chairman of the Slovak Writers
Association: There is a great deal of manipulation in our media. Unfortunately, one-sided criticism is
a feature of mainstream media. What they say is unquestionable and unambiguous truth, any other
views are unacceptable, extremist, chauvinistic or nationalistic. Labels of this kind can cover up
one's own blindness and scare others.
New methods of manipulation include allegations of so-called pro-Russian propaganda. Unfortu-
nately, the state is involved in this. Recently, the Interior Ministry said that the gradual increase in
the scale of public support for the Russian geopolitical worldview can be considered a threat to na-
tional security.
On the other hand, we must not remain silent about aggressive American propaganda, which is
conducted through both nongovernmental and governmental organizations.
Andrei Richter, Senior adviser to the representative on freedom
of the media of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), Austria: The common foundations of all
international documents on human rights amount to the
principle that no human right can be used to violate or
annul any right that is recognized at international level or
to limit it to a greater extent than is allowed by interna-
tional agreements. For this reason, bans on the propa-
ganda of war and on the advocacy of racial or religious
violence or hatred should be interpreted in the following way: freedom of expression does not in
principle extend to things of this kind. If you believe that an aggressive war should be started, if
you assume that there is no other option than unleashing a war, you are becoming antihuman, in
other words, you are embarking upon a path of negation of the very foundations of human society.
And this means that you should not be free to express opinions of this kind.
Vedat Sevincer, Managing editor of the magazine The Nordic
Page, Norway: In a country where politicians, businesspeo-
ple and some ordinary individuals take special interest in
the media, consumers of information - ordinary citizens
- should be better informed about the character of the
activities of the media. One can become an intelligent and
observant reader via education programs, via school ed-
ucation in "media literacy." Such a mechanism would re-
sult in the media being more balanced.
Sekerinka Ivanovska, Professor, International Slavic Institute Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, Macedonia: I
WOULD LIKE to start by citing the code of journalist conduct, which says that freedom of the
press is a unique right and that it is the right and duty of journalists to try to obstruct censorship
and the distortion of truth. However, today a journalist's main criterion for choosing the subject
for a report is not its information value but its political significance. The media have become a kind
of transmission link, something that has led them to professional and moral decay over the past
few decades. Many journalists have made their job a means of manipulation. This brings us to the
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