Slovakia: why the RTVS got abolished
a short comment by HAUTE CULTURE
Slovakian Parlament passed a very controversial bill yesterday. The "media bill", which concept was worked out by the SNS (right wing) party led cultural ministry, introduced initiatives that aim to restrict the independence of the public media.
"The legislation, which will dissolve RTVS and replace it with a new body called STVR (Slovak Television and Radio) fully under the control of the government, is a disgrace" said Michal Simecka, head of the largest opposition party and former vice-president of the European Parliament.
The ruling coalition has defended the bill, arguing that it will restore objectivity to an institution it sees as biased and an opponent of Fico’s rule.
This is a move which already was foreshadowed after prime minister Fico was subject of an attempted assassination on May 15th.
After the assassin shot 5-times at Fico in the city of Handlova, he was in critical shape and had to undergo a 5 hour surgery.
Fico afterwards gave a 15 minute statement on Facebook assuring that he will recover. In said video he forgave the assassin, with the reasoning that the assassin was just a straw man for the opposition, which is funded by foreign governments. Part of the opposition, according to him, is also the RTVS, which he says is "Soros backed".
link to the Facebook video: https://www.facebook.com/robertficosk/videos/1620239408774269
George Soros, the billionaire finacier has an especially bad reputation in Slovakia, as a study from 2020 by Globesec reported.
half of Slovakians surveyed said that the anti-government protests in Slovakia were funded by die-hard Democrat Soros.
To combat "foreign powers meddling" he announced that his government will pass a bill to change this.
If the bill is enforced, the management will be appointed by a nine-member council, four of which will be nominated by the Minister of Culture, one by the Minister of Finance and the others by Parliament. Because the ministry of finance is controlled by Ficos party SMER and the ministry of culture by it's coalition partner SNS, it effectively means that Ficos government will always have a majority in the council and therefore have full control of the media outlet.