Prime Minister Fico is a skilled master in channelling information to the public. Either showing his 'dismay' how unpopular (i.e. critical) journalists are destroying Slovakia's reputation, or only partially disclose facts as in the case of OSCE Commissioner Vollebaeck's letter, regarding the dubious Language Act, cleverly leaving out a fairly essential passage. Firmly being in control of what the public should or should not know, projecting an incomplete or fairly untrue picture to the public, seems a clear objective.
Yesterday, however, a disciplinary court hearing took place. Can happen. The case was as follows, where a judge filed a case against Stefan Harabín, for trespassing his competencies as President of the Supreme Court - a position, which according to valid legislation, never should have gotten in the first place. But not being Harabín, who has all the political as well as personal interests to exert full control over the judicial system, with the blessing of the very same Fico, was nominated against all odds as the most powerful Judge of Judges. When filing a case against against Harabín results in being subject to disciplinary procedures (no verdict yet) it is not quite in line with usual justice principles.
Court hearings are public, but it was special this time, that some of the attending visitors were specifically diplomats from the United States, Denmark, Great Britain and the Netherlands. Not a very usual bunch of court watchers one could say.
My educated guess would be that such special attention by the said diplomats is far from making the leadership of Slovakia very enthusiastic. Seems that somehow, the numerous attempts of individuals to bring these trends to the attention of other countries - be it mainly the EU or even the USA, has brought some fruits.
In my view a slightly positive signal indeed. And I certainly hope, that somebody will be terribly annoyed about all this unexpected attention. Obviously, these guests are quite unwelcome to some people, but I consider them more than welcome. It was about time.
MS
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