OLaNO-NOVA and SaS: We'll Distribute KALIspecial Alone

Bratislava, August 31 (TASR) – If Slovak Post refuses to distribute the KALIspecial magazine on the Kalinak-Basternak case to Slovak households, Opposition parties OLaNO-NOVA and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) will do so themselves, MPs Jozef Viskupic (OLaNO-NOVA) and Jozef Rajtar (SaS) announced on Wednesday.

While Slovak Post and the Culture Ministry seem to have made a pact against the Opposition, the unintended result is that people’s interest in the “forbidden” magazine is growing, said Rajtar.

Slovak Post has refused to distribute KALIspecial, pointing to certain legal obstacles – one of them being an unresolved question as to whether it is a periodical or not. Slovak Post was afraid that if KALIspecial were recognised as a household leaflet, it could be held legally accountable for its content.

The Culture Ministry earlier on Wednesday delivered a statement to Slovak Post claiming that KALIspecial doesn’t feature some required data, including the name of the publisher, date and year of issue and the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN).

According to Viskupic, Slovak Post can refuse to distribute a periodical only for specific reasons stated in the relevant laws. This doesn’t include insufficient registration of a periodical, stated Viskupic, calling Slovak Post’s and the Culture Ministry’s moves as ‘censorship’.

“The absence of data on the publisher doesn’t provide a reason to refuse to distribute a periodical. It’s only an administrative delict coming under the remit of the Culture Ministry, while such a delict emerges only when the distribution of the periodical without the mandatory data has already taken place,” said Viskupic, citing the opinion of an academic, whose name he didn’t provide at the latter’s request.

The two parties want to deal with the issue in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Culture Ministry in a reaction described OLaNO-NOVA’s and SaS’s moves and statements as representative of a “culture of violation of laws and defence thereof”.
OLaNO-NOVA and SaS want to distribute KALIspecial to 2 million Slovak households in order to explain the public alleged links of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak to businessman Ladislav Basternak, who’s been investigated for major tax fraud.