What problem are you solving?:

Majority of the Slovak media are in the hands of municipalities whose political and economic influence restrict the media to fulfil their protecting role for the purposes of democracy. Local media in the hands of municipalities are not just economically, but also politically dependant on the representatives of the local power either elected /mayor, councillors/ or appointed /executive officials/. Thus it is rather difficult to speak about the independence of media. The situation gets even more difficult in such contexts where some political parties cooperate locally, but nationally speaking any kind of such cooperation is unimaginable. Politicians often declare that in local conditions the political fighting must be forgotten. However, the truth is many times a complete opposite. Local media, in the effort to please these parties, decide for the lesser evil and prefer non-conflicting topics. Twenty years after the fall of communism it is a tough censorship that has been used.

Describe your idea:

Bezcenzury.sk– is planned to be a database for all media owned or co-owned by municipalities in all Slovak towns (138).Through this website a citizen can address initiatives to their local medium, raise questions, and require the solution of a particular problem. Bezcenzury.sk focuses on how such initiatives are dealt with while quantifying a number of all initiatives, number of initiatives solved in a positive way, but a number of initiatives not dealt with at all as well. The initiatives with no responses will be managed by Bezcenzury.sk. The visitors of this website will be able to discuss all the initiatives. There is an expectation that the visitors of this website will point to absolutely biased contributions that can be consequently evaluated by professionals on regular basis. Bezcenzury.sk will announce at the beginning of 2011 the most objective local medium and on contrary the most biased local medium as well.

What country will this operate in?: Slovakia

Who are you?:

We are an informal group of engaged individuals with university background / Dr. Mikulas, Zilina University in Zilina, Slovakia, www.uniza.sk /, local media background /Mgr. Spitalova, Dolny Kubin Information Centre, Slovakia http://www.tvdk.sk/ and electronic local media background /Mgr. Ondrus, The Orava Region Weekly, Slovakia http://www.novinyorava.sk// planning to use our particular and specialized expertise for the purposes of the above mentioned project under the title Without Censorship. Our informal group with international experience has been recently participating in the non-governmental organization Homo Erectus /Set upright/ whose aim is to support citizens in their efforts towards the truth, civic engagement and democratic principles.

Without Censorship Project Manager
Dr. Dalibor Mikulas dalibormikulas@pobox.sk
+421 918 320 719

Without Censorship Project Coordinator
Mgr. Lucia Spitalova
lspitalova@yahoo.co.uk