Parliament's culture and media committee on June 19 officially added its justification for its previous resolution to dismiss the head of public-service Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), Miloslava Zemková, the TASR newswire reported.
The committee concluded that Zemková went public with a tender on renting a media complex for RTVS without providing prior written notification of her intentions to the RTVS Board. Even though Zemková has turned to a court over the issue, claiming she did nothing improper, the Smer party members on the committee passed the decision.
Committee chairman Dušan Jarjabek (Smer) wouldn't say whether he will vote for Zemková's removal when the issue comes up in the House. "It's up to the parliamentary chairman, the debate will be opened, reasons for and against will be brought up, and only then will the vote follow ... I've voted for the [committee's] resolution, but this is just a proposal, and the House will have the ultimate say," said Jarjabek.
Committee member and opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) MP Daniel Krajcer asserted that the RTVS Board has never said that Zemková broke any law. "This is a very impatient effort to gain control over RTVS, but in a somewhat clumsy way," he said.
The proposal to dismiss the RTVS general director will be debated at the parliamentary session set to begin on Thursday June 21. Zemková served as general director of Slovak Radio between 2006 and 2010. In 2011, she was elected by parliament to become the first ever general director of the newly-created RTVS, which brought Slovak Television and Slovak Radio under one roof.
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.
