BRATISLAVA, December 15, (WEBNOVINY) – Director General of the Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTS) will not earn a ninefold of the average Slovak income as the bill on Radio and Television of Slovakia had originally proposed. The legislators broke the veto of President Ivan Gasparovic on Wednesday and approved again the bill, according to which public service Slovak Television and Slovak Radio will merge into a super public broadcaster. However, the MPs accepted a reservation of the president who objected the high salary of the director of the new public service institution. Deputies voted to cut the Director General’s salary to a fourfold of the average income. Eighty of 141 MPs present voted for the law, including opposition deputies Rafael Rafaj and Vincent Lukac (SNS).
President Ivan Gasparovic did not sign the bill and sent it back to the Parliament with 15 comments objecting several logically absurd provisions including high salary of the new public broadcaster’s head. The Parliament voted today to change some of the provisions in question. According to the Minister of Culture the law should prevent STV from serious economic damage and should also improve the quality of both institutions’ broadcasting.
The reform of public broadcasting institutions should take three years and will be launched with merging the public radio and television and changing the model of their financing. Among the measures planned is canceling the concession fees by January 1, 2012 and moving the institution into one building with common technological background for the broadcasting in order to make its functioning more effective.
SITA