X-Envelope-to: slovak-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.EDU
X-VMS-To: IN%"slovak-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu"
X-VMS-Cc: @RFERL.ADR,BLAZEK
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.slovak-l
Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:15:00 EST
From:         TOMAS BLAZEK & RENATA BLAZEKOVA <BLAZEK@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
Subject:      your information, maybe also your support

From:   OHSTPY::BLAZEK       "TOMAS BLAZEK & RENATA BLAZEKOVA" 21-JAN-1993
 14:10:08.52
To:     IN%"PD@RFERL.ORG"
CC:     IN%"RI-DC@RFERL.ORG",BLAZEK
Subj:   appreciation and request

To: Ms. Helga Hofer
    Publications Department
  if possible also to:
    Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
    RFE/RL Research Institue
    Oettingenstrasse 67
    D-8000 Munich 22

Cc: Mr.Jon Lodeesen or Mr. Brian Reed
    RFE/RL , Inc.
    1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW
    Washington , DC 20036



Dear Madam, Dear Sirs,
     Thank you for posting the CIS/Eastern Europe news in the com-
puter  network. It really helps people to get a lot of information
which  is  appreciated especially when one is far from that region
being permanently interested in what's going on there.

     This letter reflects this  appreciation,  however, it's  also
aimed to give a proposal how to make your news even more effective
and appreciated:
     request for switching from transferred reporting about Slova-
kia from Czech mass media into the reporting about Slovakia direc-
tly from Slovakia.

     I signed to your reports on the every day  basis  two  months
ago. However, as being Slovak, I started to be very surprised that
the coverage of the events is made  ONLY  (i.e. EXCLUSIVELY ) by
Czech Press Agency ( CTK ), Czech (before January 1993 Federal) TV,
and other  Czech mass media.  There has been  NO NOTE AT ALL  that
Press Agency of Slovak Republic  exists ( Tlacova Agentura Sloven-
skej republiky , abbr. TA SR )  altough TA SR  exists for at least
half a year  and now  it represents the main source of information
about Slovakia from Slovaks.
     This strikes  me since I can still remember the ignorance and
prejudices Czech journalists have always had about Slovaks and Slo-
vakia in recent past. Publishing semi-truths, envoking Slovak spe-
cifics,  turning  attention to and  emphasizing  the  controversal
points among Slovak politicians  but omitting real reporting  what
was going on in Slovakia, what the Slovak parliamentarians actual-
ly demanded and the Czech specifics in the relationship - that all
has been on the Czech editorial stage, in the Czech owned  Czecho-
Slovak Press Agency ( CSTK ) and in the reports of Czech governme-
ntal spokesmen since November 1989. Let me just recall what former
(up to summer 1992 ) CSTK director Petr Uhl expressed as his  lar-
gest failure: the fact that the employees of CSTK  reporting  from
Slovakia, mostly Slovaks , did not obey him. ( In an interview for
Carolina, students' weekly posted in computer networks too.)
Had I paid my attention to this issue regularly I would quote more
examples.

     Therefore, I'd like to ask you for  reporting  from  Slovakia
which would  balance  the  transferred Czech mass media and/or CTK
reporting. Especially in the situation when  Slovak  Press  Agency
has been developed. Slovakia has become an independent nation with
its own spokesmen and its own Press Agency of Slovak Republic. Not
mentioning this agency is narrowing our views.

     Thank you in advance.
                 Respectfully
                                       Tomas Blazek
                                       174 W18th Ave
                                       Columbus OH-43210
                                       U.S.A.

Columbus,OH  January 21, 1993          blazek@mps.ohio-state.edu


PS:
I'm going to forward this  letter  to my friends interested in the
RFE/RL news reports via e-mail.  If this letter is not enough, you
can judge the  extent  of  its  justification with respect to more
general response. By the way, right today we could  read about the
bad management in Slovak TV, reported by ......
                                  ... you can guess the agency.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU