The International Press Institute (IPI) has published a new report examining media capture in Slovakia and the country’s alignment with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).
The 2026 country report is part of the Media Capture Monitoring Report, produced annually by IPI and our partner the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC).
The 2025 report on media capture in Slovakia revealed multiple institutional capture and systemic risks. One year later, the consequences can be seen in reality for the media, journalists, the regulator and the media market. At the public broadcaster Slovak Television and Radio (STVR), whose board is appointed entirely by the government and its parliamentary majority, critical journalists have been fired and programmes stopped, and monitoring organisations have documented pro-government bias in its news.
As a result, indirect government control over the public media in Slovakia has solidified over the past year, with clear effects on its programming. A constitutional challenge to STVR’s governance is on hold while the EU Court of Justice interprets the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) independence requirements.
The media regulator, the Council for Media Services, has also been reshaped by coalition appointments and a new chair. It dismissed its respected chief of staff and opened proceedings in only one of 15 cases of alleged bias at STVR. A plan to replace it with a centralised National Media Authority has been postponed.
Sloavkia is now the EU Member State experiencing the most rapidly deteriorating media capture climate. These developments, and the lack of effective EMFA enforcement from the European Commission, are having damaging effects on media freedom and pluralism in Slovakia.
This is the third iteration of the Media Capture Monitoring Report, which covers eight European Union countries: Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
IPI and MJRC have announced a major expansion of the annual report series to all 27 EU Member States shortly, creating a new EMFA implementation monitor.
These reports are intended as a vital resource for media rights organizations, civil society groups, policymakers, and advocates dedicated to monitoring and fostering media freedom across the EU.
Each country assesses the four safeguards in the EMFA that bear most directly on media capture: the independence of public service media, the independence of media regulators, protection against the misuse of state funds to influence the media, and transparency of media ownership and safeguards for media pluralism.
The 2026 edition follows the EMFA’s first year of full application, from August 8, 2025. Written by national experts and edited by MJRC and IPI, the reports are deliberately short: they track what has changed since the 2025 baseline assessment and identify the problems that remain.
The project is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. It is co-funded by the European Commission.
This report was coordinated by IPI and the MJRC as part of IPI’s work under the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries
