Fico’s government approved the law on public television, RTVS will become STVR

The government coalition has enough votes in the National Council to enforce the law and also break a potential veto by the head of state. It will be valid immediately after publication in the Collection of Laws. The draft law on STVR was approved by the cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Fico at its on-site meeting at the premises of an agricultural cooperative in the west of the country, one of whose benefits, according to the Slovak register, is former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.

Even before the government’s deliberations, the Ministry of Culture deleted the provision for the establishment of a program board that would oversee the broadcast content of this station from the draft law on STVR. The planned creation of the program council was one of the most criticized provisions of the original form of the law. Critics saw the matter as a possible form of censorship on the air. The next STVR director could also not be dismissed without giving a reason.

“Television and radio cannot be objective because they are in conflict with the government of the Slovak Republic. The basic human right of the citizens of the Slovak Republic to have objective information at their disposal is being violated,” Fico claimed to journalists on Wednesday after the government meeting. He added that the House will not act on the proposal quickly, as he advocated back in March. According to him, the law should be approved by the parliament before its summer vacation.

Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová said that the draft law on STVR is in line with the European Act on Media Freedom, which was approved by the European Parliament in March and which is supposed to protect the independence of all media. According to her, RTVS’s reporting has so far been “leaning to one side”.

The current director general of RTVS Machaj took office for an initial five-year term under the previous government in the summer of 2022. According to the new law, the term of office of the current members of the station’s board will end with him, which will elect and dismiss the STVR director instead of the parliament. Until Machaj’s successor is elected, the station should be managed by a representative appointed by the Speaker of the Parliament.

The representatives of the current Slovak government coalition, which took office last October, did not hide that their goal is to achieve changes in the management of RTVS. They claimed that RTVS is not objective.

Opposition parties in Slovakia and the European Broadcasting Union criticized the original bill as a threat to the independence of public television and radio. In response to the government’s decision on Wednesday, the strongest opposition movement Progressive Slovakia said that the law means the end of the free RTVS.

According to the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the only goal of the government is to gain control over RTVS. In recent months, the current Slovak government has also changed other laws with the aim of changing the heads of some offices or institutions.

After Fico was appointed as prime minister last year, in addition to criticizing RTVS, he stopped communicating with four other media, including the most watched Markíza TV. He called them hostile. The already four-time Prime Minister Fico does not usually allow journalists to ask questions at press conferences and often communicates with the public via Facebook.