RADIM Hreha, the new general director of public broadcaster Slovak Television (STV), said that the Pod Lampou (Under the Lamp) talk show has been definitely cancelled, and will replaced by a program with a similar format.
In the final installment of Pod Lampou on January 18, guests including Hreha and the show’s former host, Štefan Hríb, were expected to discuss the situation at STV, where several senior news staff have been fired since Hreha took over, allegedly due to pressure from political parties.
As the show began, Hríb called Hreha a liar for denying he was firing people due to political pressure. He then left the studio.
According to Eugen Korda, an investigative journalist who was among those fired from STV, Hreha told him in private that he had been “unable to resist the political pressure” applied for Korda’s dismissal.
Milan Urbáni, the deputy chairman of the ruling Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party, said in a recent interview with the Sme daily that the coalition had agreed to divide STV into spheres of influence.
But Dušan Jarjabek of the Smer ruling party denied this information and labeled Urbáni’s statements “unfortunate”.
