LADISLAV Mikuš was approved by the government for the position of head of the Telecommunications Office (TÚ) on January 28. Mikuš was proposed by the Ministry of Transportation, Posts and Telecommunication and must be confirmed by parliament, the TASR newswire wrote.
Mikuš served as the president of Slovenské Telekomunikácie (today’s Slovak Telekom) in 2000 – 2002. He will become head of the TÚ following the removal of Branislav Máčaj by parliament on December 4 under controversial circumstances.
According to the transport minister Ľubomír Vážny, the reason for Máčaj’s dismissal was his unwillingness to comply with the government’s strategy for transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.
But the opposition said the real reason for his dismissal was the desire of certain financial groups to break into the digitalisation process and, in particular, into the public procurement process for selection of the operator for regular broadcasting in DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial).
Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner responsible for telecommunications, sent an urgent letter to the Slovak government on December 5 requesting further information about the sacking of Máčaj.
Reding was concerned about whether the decision to dismiss Máčaj had met the requirements of full independence for national regulatory authorities, as required by EU law.
The Telecommunications Office is a regulatory body covering the field of electronic communications and is responsible, among other tasks, for supporting free competition in the market.
2. Feb 2009 at 0:00 | Compiled by Spectator staff from press reports
