End of artistic freedom in Eastern Europe? When culture ministries become fighting ministries
The dismissal of cultural managers by the Slovak Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová was only the latest incident. Cultural ministries in many illiberal states in the East are being transformed into “frontline ministries”. They are fighting against liberal values.
Doesn’t take facts too seriously, but governs with a firm hand: the Slovak Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová.
Image: Imago/Vaclav Salek / www.imago-images.de
The Slovakian Minister of Culture, Martina Šimkovičová, is not very good with facts. When it comes to things that fall into the field of “freedom of expression” in the weightlessness of freedom from facts, the people around her say something like this: It has not been proven that the earth is round, said her close colleague Lukáš Machala, Secretary General in the ministry, for example – and then demanded that those who believe in a flat earth should also be given a voice on public television. This statement was made while Martina Šimkovičová was converting public broadcasting into a state broadcaster amid protests. The protest went unheeded.
