BRATISLAVA, November 5, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak Parliament gave the green light in the first reading to the planned merger of public service Slovak Television and Slovak Radio. In the Friday’s vote they decided to deal with a draft bill on Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTS) and thus move it to the second reading. Legislators are dealing with the draft in expedited legislative procedure. Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer whose department prepared the bill warns that if the merger does not take place, the state-run public TV broadcaster would suffer serious economic damage. 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. 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.
The bill stipulates that if the director general of the new institution fails to keep the approved obligatory budget indicators, it would be the reason for him/her to go.
Legislators voted to move the draft to the second reading though many of them, from both coalition and opposition camps would prefer to have an analysis of the situation in the public service media and a longer debate. Some deputies have announced several comments for the second reading of the draft.
After the vote, Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik closed the eighth parliamentary session.
SITA