RTVS Management: Junior News Service Team Chooses to Build Barricade
Bratislava, April 4 (TASR) – The RTVS management views the open letter by dissatisfied RTVS editors and reporters as an unwillingness to accept the efforts made by the new news service management to produce objective, balanced, impartial news, stated RTVS general director Jaroslav Reznik, head of the news service Vahram Chuguryan and heads of the television and radio news sections Hana Lyons and Petra Stano Matasovska in a joint statement on Wednesday.
The RTVS management was responding to the open letter written and signed by 58 RTVS editors and reporters dissatisfied with the current situation in the public service broadcaster’s news service. In the letter they pointed to the persistent tensions between the RTVS management and the news service team.
The RTVS leadership in its response stated that the news service, due to frequent personnel changes in the editorial staff, has been struggling with repeated shortcomings in the work and linguistic expression of its young editors. These flaws stem from the junior editors’ lack of experience and because these editors haven’t had the opportunity to boost their journalistic potential under the guidance of senior editors. “The news service’s radical young core, instead of dedicating its energy to self-education, has decided to build a barricade from the inside, search for an enemy and shout at others – whoever is not with us is against us!” reads the management’s statement.
The RTVS management further criticised how the dissatisfied editors communicated. According to the management, instead of leading a constructive dialogue at the joint daily meetings, they have chosen to publish an open letter in the media.
In its statement the leadership also said that the news service team’s issues can only be resolved within the public service broadcaster itself.
Earlier in the day, 58 members of RTVS’s news service signed an open letter in which they reproached the RTVS management for their reluctance to accept opposing and critical opinions. At the same time, they suggested that there is possible interference with the news service. “We do not believe that our superiors are able to protect the editorial staff from strong external pressures,” they said in the letter.
