What Veronika spoke about.

12

Feb

2025

SK Speech

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Honouring the memory of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová: advancing media freedom, strengthening the rule of law, and protecting journalists across the EU (debate)

Jano Kuciak, that's the message I received seven years ago when the news began to spread like fire among my colleagues that one of them had been the victim of a murder. I know exactly what I was doing back then. I know exactly where I was then. Since then, a lot has happened in our country, events that will last for decades. But the important thing today is that John is not here today, and his fia…

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Need to enforce the Digital Services Act to protect democracy on social media platforms including against foreign interference and biased algorithms (debate)

Madam President, as a former journalist, I value the freedom of speech very dearly. And let me be very clear: the DSA and fact‑checking protect this freedom. Fact‑checking flags disinformation and keeps social media open for honest and transparent debate. Are we suppressing opinions? Look around this Chamber. I think every opinion here is well represented on social media and elsewhere. We must act…

17

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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Misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms, such as TikTok, and related risks to the integrity of elections in Europe (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, we often think of platforms like TikTok, but not only TikTok as free spaces, as neutral arenas where some bureaucratic rules are imposed. But this simply is not true. These platforms already are controlled ecosystems. Algorithms drive them, as we heard, and dark forces exploit them. Disinformation, foreign interference and large-scale manipulation …

28

Nov

2024

SK Speech

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Strengthening children’s rights in the EU - 35th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (debate)

Madam President, today's children are facing unprecedented challenges. It was a pandemic that caught many without a safety net and sometimes completely without a safe environment. Not to mention the vast online world, which offers incredible opportunities, but we still do not fully know what tax we are paying for it. Many times we hear, and have heard today, that children are our future. But I alw…

27

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Recent legislation targeting LGBTQI persons and the need for protecting the rule of law and a discrimination-free Union (debate)

Madam President, I cannot believe what I'm hearing in this Chamber, right here in the year 2024. I thought the European Union was supposed to be a union of equality, no? Am I wrong? I'm a new MEP – am I in the wrong Chamber? What is happening? So let me be clear: targeting or silencing minorities does not demonstrate strength, it highlights division and misunderstanding. The recent laws in Bulgari…

25

Nov

2024

SK Speech

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International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (debate)

Mr President, I do not find it easy to talk about women who have experienced violence. It is even difficult to call them heroines, not because they lack courage, but because they did not choose this fate on their own. And few of us can imagine the dilemmas they face. These are the choices they were forced to make. I rarely feel anger, but I feel it when someone tries to take space away from women …

24

Oct

2024

SK Speech

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Abuse of new technologies to manipulate and radicalise young people through hate speech and antidemocratic discourse (debate)

Madam President, thank you very much, good day - and I will start with a personal conviction: young people are neither worse, nor better, nor more radical than others, but today they are confronted with a force that no other generation has faced to such an extent before, namely the online world. If someone thinks things happen by chance, they're wrong. The algorithms of social networks not only cr…

23

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Seven years from the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia: lack of progress in restoring the rule of law in Malta (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, I was not here seven years ago when Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated. But I am here today, and I'm not afraid to say that it is in great part to Daphne and to Ján Kuciak. It is also no coincidence that we are discussing the state of law today, because the state of the rule of law is reflected in how journalists are treated, When they are …

10

Oct

2024

SK Speech

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World Mental Health Day - need for a comprehensive EU strategy on mental health (debate)

Mr President, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit us harder than we were willing to admit, and the consequences of the solitude it entails hurt us all. And as a mother, I feel particularly sensitive to the fact that it affects children and young people. We still don't talk about mental health openly enough. We have little focus on prevention. We heard it here today. And it's still a stigma not to be wel…

9

Oct

2024

SK Speech

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2024 Annual Rule of law report (debate)

Mr President, I am following closely those who are destroying the rule of law. Those who disparage female journalists and journalists who try to destroy the media use harsh language and think they are strong leaders. You know what I think? They're not. I have carefully read the report on countries that are lagging behind in upholding the rule of law and its principles. And it is read as an unfulfi…

7

Oct

2024

SK Speech

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Facing fake news, populism and disinformation in the EU - the importance of public broadcasting, media pluralism and independent journalism (debate)

Madam President, 'the pandemic hasn't been', 'Europe is dying because of LGBTI'. These untruths are spread not by anonymous trolls on the Internet, but by the highest representatives of the Government of the Slovak Republic. This is not just the case with Slovakia. We hear similar statements all over Europe, and in some cases they even help to win elections. There are words at the beginning of eve…

17

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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Global measures towards social media platforms - Strengthening the role of DSA and protecting democracy and freedom in the online sphere (debate)

Mr President, it is 2024 and 59% of all Europeans are on social media. There is no way that what we consume there is decided outside the European Union and without any consequences. There is no way that women are insulted every day on the Internet for their work. There is no such thing as misleading business practices in the online world. To spread fake news like fire at the expense of facts. Let'…