Fico government OKs law to overhaul Slovak public broadcaster

7 months ago 30

The government of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico approved a controversial law aiming to tighten state control over public service broadcaster RTVS on Wednesday – a move that critics say is still a threat to media freedom in Slovakia, despite minor changes to the final proposal.

While the Slovak Culture Ministry initially proposed a draft law on RTVS in March, it backpedalled on the proposal and said it would look into making amendments following backlash from critics, saying the reform clashes with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and various international standards, including the Council of Europe’s recommendation on public service media governance.

However, the draft law was reintroduced with slight changes and approved by the government on Wednesday, which passed the legislation to parliament for its approval.

According to the new proposed law, RTVS is to be renamed STVR (Slovak Television and Radio) instead of an originally proposed “STaR”, and, if it were to come into effect, the mandates of current RTVS Director General Ľuboš Machaj and the members of the current RTVS council would end.

The reformed national broadcaster STVR bodies will consist of the council and the general director.

However, while the council will continue to have nine members, the selection process will change, as it is now planned that the ruling coalition will decide on its composition, with the culture minister having to nominate four members, while the remaining five are to be elected by parliament.

As for the director, the council will have the power to elect or dismiss the director – unlike the initial proposal, removal without stating a reason will not be permissible.

Contrary to the initial proposal, there will be no new “programme board” even though the latter was supposed to assess and control the programme of RTVS “in terms of compliance with the public service nature of broadcasting” – a previous move that had experts from the media industry and the opposition calling the envisioned board a “censorship body”.

Now the government aims to create an “ethics commission”, which should serve as an advisory body to the STVR council, while the reform will also not be subject to a fast-track comment procedure anymore.

In a video published by RTVS employees, of whom more than 1,200 who signed a statement opposing the reform, they said: “If politicians take control of the public media and make RTVS a handmaiden of their power and interests, we are afraid that we will no longer be able to guarantee objectivity, independence and truthfulness.”

For his part, Fico claims that changes to RTVS were needed as “it is incapable of satisfying the public’s right to objective information.”

“How can it provide objective information when it is engaged in a constant fight with the government?” Fico asked rhetorically at a press conference on Monday.

For many years, Slovak viewers have rated RTVS’s TV news as the most objective in Slovakia.

The current Slovak government has constantly criticised RTVS, with Fico promising to “go after” its director-general.

In December, Reporters Without Borders condemned these attacks and urged Bratislava not to undermine the independence of RTVS.

(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)