Slovakia’s parliament did not recall Miloslava Zemková, the head of public-service Radio and Television of Slovakia, RTVS, at its session on June 20 but it is likely that she will be dismissed on June 21 after the vote is taken on the permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the Sme daily wrote. Smer party, which has a majority in parliament, and its Culture Minister Marek Maďarič have insisted that Zemková be dismissed, saying that she is not doing her job well and breached the law in a public tender announced earlier this year, according to Sme.
Zemková said in an address to parliament that there are no factual or legal reasons for her dismissal, the TASR newswire wrote, emphasising that none of her actions had led to and could have led to damage to the public interest, Sme wrote.
Parliament's culture and media committee issued a report on June 19 stating that Zemková had gone public with a tender on renting a media complex for RTVS without providing prior written notification of her intentions to the governing board of RTVS. The committee recommended that parliament remove her from the post for what it views as a violation of the law.
In response to the reason cited for her ouster, Zemková said that this is fabricated, saying that she believes that the governing Smer party has a different idea of who should be in charge of RTVS.
"Given the circumstances, my work is being made more difficult. I'm feeling I've lost trust and that many view me as a political candidate of the former [government] coalition. This is not the case. Election by parliament of any RTVS general director brings this risk but I don't understand the false reasoning ... I acted in my position in an honest manner," Zemková stated, as quoted by TASR.
Zemková presented legal analyses that concluded that no law was broken by her actions. She also said that RTVS under her leadership had made savings of €35 million in operational expenditures and ended 2011 with a surplus of €22 million. She added that the broadcaster invested considerably more into programming in 2011 than in 2010 and that it is no longer plagued with debts.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
