Banska Bystrica Regional Court has ruled that the far-right LSNS party has to apologise to the vice-chair of the extra-parliamentary Progresívne Slovakia (PS) party, Irena Bihariova, for the untrue information it has published about her in its newspaper and on the internet, PS communication department head Radovan Choleva told TASR on Tuesday.
"The court's ruling orders LSNS to refrain from similar action, to publish an apology on the party's website and in its newspaper and to pay her €5,000 in compensation for non-pecuniary damage," said Choleva.
According to him, LSNS in 2019 repeatedly published in its newspaper and on the internet untrue information about alleged subsidies amounting to thousands of euros provided by then Education Minister Martina Lubyova to Bihariova's NGO. Bihariova pointed out that she was called, among other things, a 'gypsy fanatic' in the stories. "The ruling reminded people where the boundaries are between freedom of speech and the spread of disinformation that expose a person to social humiliation or virtual lynching," stated Bihariova.
Source: TASR
