BRATISLAVA, 10 Jun: Employees of Slovakia\u2019s public radio and television broadcaster staged a three-hour walkout on Monday to protest a contentious overhaul of their services, a move that critics say would result in the government taking full control of the media.
\nThe coalition government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico approved the measure on April 24, and it\u2019s currently being debated in parliament.
\nThe plan has been widely criticized by President Zuzana Caputov\u00e1, local journalists, the opposition, international media organizations and the European Union.
\nDirector-general Lubo\u0161 Machaj said that he respected the right of the staffers to protest.
\n\u201cOur suggestions (about the plan) haven\u2019t been respected,\u201d Machaj said.
\nThe proposed changes would mean the public broadcaster known as RTVS would cease to exist and be replaced by a new organization.
\nThe protesters marched through the city to rally in front of the Culture Ministry. They demand that the current RTVS system has to remain in place, and that the broadcaster has the finances to effectively function and its journalists aren\u2019t under attack from politicians and others.
\nThe takeover plan was drafted by Culture Minister Martina \u0160imkovicov\u00e1, who represents the Slovak National Party, an ultranationalist member of the coalition government. She has worked for an internet television outlet known for spreading disinformation.
\n\u0160imkovicov\u00e1 said that the current broadcaster gives space only to mainstream views and censors the rest. The broadcaster has denied the claim.
\nUnder her plan, the new broadcaster \u2014 Slovak television and radio, or STVR \u2014 will have a director selected by a council whose nine members will be nominated by the Culture Ministry and parliament. The current director has a parliamentary mandate until 2027.
\nThousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital in protest rallies organized by the major opposition Progressive Slovakia party and others. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRATISLAVA, 10 Jun: Employees of Slovakia\u2019s public radio and television broadcaster staged a three-hour walkout on Monday to protest a contentious overhaul of their services, a move that critics say would result in the government taking full control of the media. The coalition government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico approved the measure on April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-241967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}