Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

News and Topical issue. We discuss the situation of state run institutions as well as independent artists speaking to a film producer, a translator of fiction, a music events manager and a Slovak National Gallery lecturer. Spend your time with a new podcast of Information centre for Slovak literature. Listen to Slovak Phil live stream concerts.

News and Topical issue. In today's program, a so called Green recovery initiative, aiming to mobilise European counries to restore their economies in compliace with the European Green Deal will be discussed by a Slovak MEP Martin Hojsík. Then we will discover Oravská priehrada water reservoir and its Bird's Island with Slovak Ornithological Society/BirdLife Slovakia director Michal Demko and we will look at beekeeping in Slovakia with beekeeper Martin Michalík.

News and Topical issue. What is the position of residents in Slovakia on the current coronavirus epidemics and measures introduced in order to slow down the spread of the virus? Then we will continue with our special history series about WW2-part 3

The special lockdown imposed on Slovakia for the Easter holidays - in addition to the general ban on Church attendance during the coronavirus pandemic - has had a particular impact on the lives of practicing Christians, for whom Easter week is the most important holiday season of the year. In the days leading up to Easter we spoke with Fr Ben Kosnac, a Catholic priest and the main pastoral figure for the only English-language Sunday mass in Bratislava, about the impact of these restrictions on the life of the Church, especially on the elderly. We also REPEAT a special interview with author, poet and paster Daniel Pastirčák from last year at this time, about what Easter means to him.

Enjoy the special Easter Monday edition of our daily show. First we will find out how, and more importantly if at all, Easter Monday is celebrated among the Slovak community in Ontario, Canada.

Then we will meet the traveller and photographer Filip Kulišev, who visited Easter Island not that long ago. And we will also take a quick look at the orchards in full bloom in the Bošáca valley.

Summary of official stances of churches in Slovakia regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions during Easter. Interview with the Catholic priest Jozef Konc about Good Friday and Easter in general and also in the perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RERUN: Interview with Sjón, Icelandic author. Report from the house of amateur sculptor Vladimir Moravek.

After the news bulletin we will check in with Slovaks living in NYC, who tell us how they are experiencing these days. One of them is the New York Post photographer, Paul Martinka. Then we will continue with our special history series about WW2. The second part of the series looks at the ways future soldiers of the Czechoslovak army in exile were escaping the fascist Slovak state.

Does the COVID-19 pandemic warrant giving the government access to our private personal data, in order to slow the spread of infection? Slovakia's new law giving the Health Ministry access to peronal information about our movements, based on mobile phone location data, has sparked controversy. In addition to questions about its effectiveness, IT security specialist Pavol Lupták believes the new legislation will place our personal data in danger of being exploited by hackers and profiteers. When Tomáš Koník recently moved with his family from their home village of Devinska Nova Ves to a small village in Austria, he had no idea that the two villages - which have been connected by a cycling bridge across the river Morava for the past eight years - would suddenly be cut off from each other, with the bridge now closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

News and Topical issue. Coverage of the current coronavirus epidemic in Slovakia. The 4th round of RSI competition.