Jaroslav Reznik New General Director of RTVS as of Wednesday

Bratislava, August 2 (TASR) – Jaroslav Reznik has taken over the post of general director of public broadcaster Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS) as of Wednesday, thus replacing Vaclav Mika in this post.

So-far general director of TASR news agency was elected to the post in a secret second-round vote in Parliament in June. He received backing from 95 MPs. “RTVS will be a national, cultural institution under my leadership that will be thorough in delivering on its public service mission,” said Reznik shortly after being elected to the post.

Reznik said that RTVS is set to face a number of tasks over the next few years related to improvement of the quality of program services. His vision is to turn RTVS into an institution “with clearly distinguishable programme outputs and with resolved issues regarding technology, funding, and multi-channel strategy development”.

Concerning radio services, Reznik mentions its own digital multiplex. Concerning TV broadcasting, Reznik wants to launch a third television channel offering sport. He envisions launching the channel by 2020 or possibly even in 2019, if circumstances so warrant. Channel Two (‘Dvojka’) would broadcast programmes for children and schools during the day and high quality arts-focused programmes in the evenings.

In terms of RTVS’ funding, Reznik supports preservation of the current hybrid model, meaning a combination of licence fees, a contract with the state and RTVS’s own revenues. He intends to discuss the financing with MPs yet.

Reznik was born in Ruzomberok (Zilina region) on July 12, 1966. In 1993, he was named director of Slovak Radio’s (SRo) regional studio in Kosice, before going on to become SRo head (1997-2005). He was appointed as TASR’s general director by the then government on April 4, 2007. When TASR was transformed by a law from a co-subsidised organisation into a public service institution, TASR’s management board re-elected Reznik as general director for a five-year term in April 2009. He was again re-elected as the agency’s head by the management board in January 2014, beginning another five-year term on April 30, 2014.