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Slovakia’s government on Wednesday approved a bill intending to abolish the country’s public broadcaster, Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), and replace it with a new entity, Slovakia Television and Radio (STVR). The bill was presented by the Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová, of the populist and pro-Russian government led by Robert Fico: in June it will be voted on in parliament, where the government has the majority and where it is expected to be definitively approved.
According to Šimkovičová, RTVS must be dismantled and replaced with a new company because the current broadcaster engages in “political activism” against the government. Šimkovičová is herself a former journalist, widely criticized in the past for her pro-Russian positions and, even before her, because she was accused of spreading misinformation about vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic. Robert Fico, the prime minister, recently said that «the situation of RTVS is unsustainable», because the broadcaster is «in permanent conflict with the Slovak government» and this, in his opinion, violates the right of Slovak citizens to receive objective information.
Over a thousand RTVS employees have already presented a petition against the proposed law, considered dangerous for freedom of expression, in line with other initiatives of the Fico government. For Thursday 25 April the broadcaster’s journalists have organized a day of protest in which they will all dress in black.
Fico’s government has been talking for weeks about changing control of the broadcaster, so much so that last month there were large protests across the country in support of media independence: thousands of people participated, including the employees themselves. of the RTVS, opposition politicians and activist organizations for freedom of expression.
A protest against the Slovak government and its plans to reorganize the public broadcaster RTVS, last March (EPA/JAKUB GAVLAK/ANSA)
The bill approved by the government compared to the initial plans eliminated some controversial aspects, such as the creation of a “council” that would oversee all editorial decisions. At the same time, eliminating the current broadcaster and replacing it with a new company would still increase government control over public information.
Among other things, the proposed law provides for the removal of the general director of RTVS from his position (whose mandate, of parliamentary appointment, would expire in 2027) and replaced with a person chosen by a board made up of five people: four appointed by government ministers and one by parliament, which in any case is controlled by Fico’s coalition.
Instead of the initially proposed “council” to oversee editorial decisions, the proposed law provides for an “ethics committee” with functions that the government has described as advisory.
The current one is the fourth government led by Fico, who had already been prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and in two governments from 2012 to 2018. He and his party have been involved in several scandals in recent years and have been repeatedly accused of corruption . This year Fico’s government also reformed the judicial system, leading, among other things, to the closure of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, an institution that had existed since 2004 and which dealt with the most serious cases of corruption and organized crime.
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