Eight Candidates for RTVS Director Advance to Parliamentary Vote

Bratislava, May 30 (TASR) – The parliamentary culture and media committee on Tuesday advanced eight candidates for the parliamentary vote in June aimed at selecting the new general director of public broadcaster Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS), TASR learnt on the same day.

Norbert Majer, who failed to attend the public hearing, cannot run for the post.

Among the hopefuls who will contest the first round of the vote, scheduled for June 15, are Peter Abraham, Richard Direr, Fedor Flasik, Vaclav Mika, Jaroslav Reznik, Michal Ruttkay, Zuzana Tapakova and Stanislav Velitzky. If none of the applicants garners more than half of the votes, the two with the highest tallies will advance to a second round, set for June 22.

Committee chair Dusan Jarjabek (Smer-SD) said that he doesn’t know whether the governing coalition has already agreed on a joint candidate. “There was a Coalition Council session today; they surely also canvassed choices for the post of RTVS general director and watched this broadcast [of the hearing]. However, I have no information at this stage. I hope that I’ll have some as soon as possible,” he claimed.

The committee also obliged the RTVS Council to send a statement concerning remuneration for RTVS managers that was leaked to the media, with the committee intending to adopt a stance by June 12. “Subsequently, I’ll convene a session to evaluate this,” said Jarjabek.