Parliament rejects bills to support journalists

Neither public broadcaster RTVS nor the TASR press agency will be obliged to produce investigative journalism, as Parliament rejected a proposal to this effect on Tuesday, drawn up by two independent MPs Miroslav Beblavý a Viera Dubáčová. The proposal was aimed at boosting investigative journalism, the status of journalists and also at providing investigative journalism with adequate funding. RTVS was supposed to allocate 1 percent of its budget to investigations, while TASR should have spent 2 percent of its budget to this effect. However, neither of these proposals were approved by the Parliament. The topics of investigative journalism and the protection of journalists have become a burning issue following the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée in February this year.