Slovak station fined for criticizing Vatican's “ten commandments” of driving

Bratislava, Slovakia, Jan 10, 2008 / 04:02 am MT (CNA).-

A Slovakian television station has been fined two-million koruna ($88,400), for making fun of a Vatican document on Christian driving, Agence France Presse reports.

Slovakia’s broadcasting council said that a program on the commercial station Joj abused viewers’ religious sensibilities and was not objective.

The program targeted the 2007 document issued by the Pontifical Council for Migrants “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road,” widely characterized by media reports as teaching the “Ten Commandments” of driving. 

The program said that priests were “not the best experts” to give instructions on driving because the Vatican had "only two kilometers of highway and the last traffic accident was more than half a year ago."

Around two-thirds of Slovakians describe themselves as Catholic.