BRATISLAVA, November 7, (WEBNOVINY) – Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer is aggravated by the activities of the public-service Slovak Television (STV), which had full-page ads in the recent issues of the national daily PRAVDA about how it wants to resolve its catastrophic indebtedness. “It is outrageous if the Slovak Television, in a situation of a huge debt and impending collapse, is paying for expensive full-page ads in a national daily instead of using the funds to pay up its debts and to strengthen its [broadcasting] program,” stated Krajcer. The ministry considers it to be uttermost insolence that the STV is offering as one of the solutions increasing the viewers’ license fees. “I ask, what has the STV management been doing until now? Writing letters to the ministry and reaching out its hand. Suddenly, when we started acting so that we save the public service media, STV has solutions ready. I am convinced that the STV cannot be in the hands of people who want to make citizens pay higher license fees and at the same time threaten the existence of the Slovak Television,” Krajcer said in a statement that the ministry’s spokeswoman Eva Chudinova provided to SITA news agency.
According to the Culture Ministry, the property of all citizens cannot be left in the hands of gamblers who even in such situation spend license fees on full-page adds in a newspaper. “I publicly call on the management of the Slovak Television to immediately stop spending the money of citizens, who pay fees for services, the so-called concessionaire fees, and invest it rather in improving the quality of program or in reduction of STV’s loss. I assure the public that the STV will not halt the inevitable reform process of the public service media with its activities,” the minister concluded.
The STV’s ad in PRAVDA is titled „Radiotelevision does not Resolve Anything! These Variants Do“ and is a reaction to the draft bill on the merger of the Slovak Radio and Slovak Television, which the Parliament supported in the first reading on Friday. The draft was shaped to halt further debt accumulation in STV and improve the quality of its broadcasting.
The reform in the public service media should last at least three years, according to the draft. It will commence with their merger and culminate with scrapping of the current financing model. The Finance Ministry will supervise the reform process. One of the first steps is cancellation of license fees as of January 1 of 2012. The reform should culminate by moving the new merged institution into a new residence, which should be an efficient building offering joint technology for both TV and radio broadcasting.
The STV management planned a deficit of EUR 37 million for next year. The Culture Ministry, however expects the merger to save the state at least EUR 1.65 million in 2011.
SITA