As of this morning (Tuesday, July 17), the parliamentary committee for culture and media had received three envelopes containing applications for the job of general director of the merged public radio and television broadcaster, Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), the SITA newswire reported, citing committee chairman Dušan Jarjabek (Smer). The deadline for submitting applications is 16:00 today; the applications are due to be read and discussed by the committee tomorrow morning.
On July 30, qualifying candidates will be invited to a public hearing and invited to present their ideas. As a result, parliament could approve and appoint a new RTVS boss by the beginning of August. The call for potential candidates was published on June 28, after former general director Miloslava Zemková was recalled. Two of the potential candidates – Václav Mika, a former head of the private broadcaster TV Markíza, and Jaroslav Rezník, the current head of the state-owned news agency TASR – confirmed their candidacies, SITA reported.
Of the three applications the committee received, one had been sent from abroad, the Sme daily reported.
Zemková was removed as RTVS general director on June 26 after 82 MPs voted in support of a motion from the parliamentary committee for culture and media to sack her before the end of her five-year term. The opposition boycotted the vote and said the action was a political move by the Smer party to take control of the public broadcaster.
Sources: SITA, Sme
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.