Beata Balogová, editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily newspaper SME, delivered the 2021 Czech and Slovak Freedom Lecture on November 17, 2021. Her lecture, presented virtually from Bratislava due to covid-19 travel restrictions, was entitled “How Journalists Survived Backsliding and State Capture.” Her talk combined a history of threats to press freedoms during the Mečiar and Fico years in Slovakia, a personal account of her decision to become a journalist, and a warning that democratic institutions are again under attack in Central Europe.

The Czech and Slovak Freedom Lecture is an annual lecture inaugurated in 2000. It is hosted by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and cosponsored by the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, Embassy of the Czech Republic, Friends of Slovakia, and American Friends of the Czech Republic.

The complete text of Ms. Balogová’s lecture is available here.

A video recording of the event from the Woodrow Wilson Center is available here.