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Slovak Radio building in Bratislava: The public broadcaster is to be renovated
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
The Slovakian government under the left-wing nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico has sparked protests with legislative plans for a restructuring of the public radio and television RTVS.
The liberal and conservative opposition had been accusing the coalition of two social democratic and one right-wing populist parties for days of wanting to create a government propaganda station.
On Thursday evening, President Zuzana Caputova also criticized the plan.
Several non-governmental organizations announced that they wanted to involve the EU Commission.
More than a thousand RTVS employees signed a protest call by Thursday and did not rule out a strike.
As part of the restructuring, RTVS is to be formally dissolved and transformed into a new institution called “STaR” (abbreviated for “Slovak Television and Radio”).
President Caputova criticized this in a statement published by the TASR news agency: "There is no real reason for the dissolution of RTVS except one - namely to take political control over it," argued the head of state.
In fact, under current law, the government cannot remove current RTVS chief Lubos Machaj.
However, a formal RTVS resolution removes this hurdle.
Machaj was elected by parliament in 2022.
aka/dpa