The Ministry of Agriculture of Richard Takač from Smer paid more than 90,000 euros for advertising space on the pro-government disinformation website eReport. At the same time, the department slapped the pro-Russian Main News and the conspiracy magazine Extra Plus with just under 36,000. warned Transparency International Slovakia (TIS).
All sites are located at project list Konspirátori.sk, which has been compiling a list of websites with disinformation, conspiracy and other problematic content for ten years.
“You are right, the amount is not high, we should fix it – so I will have to think about it and find funds to support these types of media,” he responded to the findings Richard Takac at the party’s press conference on Tuesday Direction.
TIS points out that the problem is not only the advertising itself, but also eReport’s personal links to politicians, the current boss CREATE Martina Flašíková, but also the fact that the editors of the mentioned websites are directly involved in the production of PR content.
You will read:
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how Prime Minister Fico reacted to the case,
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what is the background of the eReport,
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who else is handing out state money to the disinfoscene.
Flašík’s last media project
“So if Richard Takač gave money for advertising to anti-government media, everything would be fine?” asked the prime minister Robert Fico in a video he published on Sunday.
The ministry actually pays the mainstream media as well. Since August 2025, it has bought advertising for three quarters of a million euros in TA3, more than half a million was paid by STVR, other websites, televisions and radios received less.
“So the problem is not only that the state orders advertising in a media alternative that does not respect journalistic standards and spreads deceptive and propagandistic content. The situation is made even worse by the fact that disinfo websites were not only about banners, but also about articles or video interviews, in the production of which the editors should have participated directly,” Transparency International explains to the prime minister.
Since August 2025, when Takač first bought advertising on eReport, the website has published 82 articles about the Ministry of Agriculture. Only four of them were marked as paid, despite this, TIS searched in vain for signs of criticism of the department and the minister.
The medium was founded by the late Fedor Flašík, and on the disinformation scene it emerged as a site that promotes the current government, especially the Smer and Hlas parties. In the spring of 2024, the website was inherited by Flašík’s daughters, and Martina Flašíková, the current CEO of STVR, became the chairman of the board of the company that publishes eReport.
Flašíková had to leave the publishing house New Story Media only after she became the head of STVR. According to TIS, the company is still based at the address of her sister Dorota Alscher Flašíková.
Hana Slávičková also serves on the company’s supervisory board. Transparency International states that it is actively involved in eReport and it was she who drew up the price offers for Takáč’s resort. In the past, Slávičková was a parliamentary assistant to several Smer politicians, including the current Minister of Justice Boris Susko.
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Same money, different result. Takác doesn’t see a problem
Takáč defends the support of the disinfo scene by attacking the mainstream media and their alleged bias. Disinfo sites have a “different opinion”. “The right one for us,” says Takač.
It is also defended by the claim that disinformation sites very often have several times higher reach and number of interactions with readers than standard media.
This claim cannot be reliably verified, as the statistics of disinfo websites are not public and are not subject to ongoing auditing, as is common in the media market.
The exception is eReport, which according to the Gemius Audience platform is the 35th most visited news website in Slovakia (for the month of March). In one of the department’s campaigns, he received the same amount as the Topky tabloids. While eReport declared 100,000 to 200,000 views in two weeks for PR banners and commercials, Topky offered a viewership of up to 1.2 million.
Although it is information directly from the media in question, Takač replied to Denník N during the press conference that he considers such an assignment of advertising with two diametrically different counter-values to be an efficient and economical use of taxpayers’ money.
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He is not the only one like that
Money flows into the disinfo scene from several directions. TIS pointed out that the Minister of Labor also bought positive PR in eReport Erik Tomas from the Voice. His department paid 12,300 euros to a pro-government disinfo website.
“On departmental topics, many of the articles sound more positive than the ministry’s press releases. It seems that even its employees do not allow themselves to do such dirty PR to their boss, as demonstrated by the alternative portal,” the organization evaluates.
The SME newspaper pointed out last week that The National Highway Company also buys advertising space on disinfo websites. After three thousand euros, she tapped the Hlavné denník, but also the mentioned Hlavné správa and eReport.
The state-owned company defends itself by claiming that it is a campaign against fraud with the sale of an electronic highway stamp, and the NDS wants to reach motorists who do not read standard media.
Disinfoweby in the past, it was also directly supported by the Government Office. He paid ten thousand each to the civic associations that run Hlavné spravy and Hlavné denník.
