IPI criticises PM Fico’s remarks about public broadcaster

"Efforts by Slovakia's prime minister to exercise control over the country's public broadcaster are inappropriate and unwise," wrote the International Press Institute (IPI) on Wednesday. The IPI reacted in this way to the PM's announcement that he would instruct deputies to make a change in the leadership of public broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS). "The prime minister's call for parliament to interfere in RTVS' operations puts at risks the broadcaster's independence and raises the troubling spectre of it becoming a pro-government mouthpiece," said IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis, adding that "public broadcasters cannot fulfil their vital role unless they are independent from political interference". Recently, Fico accused the public broadcaster and its news to be biased, anti-government and pro-opposition. As IPI stressed on its website, the PM's comments "came as opinion polls show RTVS' reputation for objectivity growing with the public in Slovakia." In June, Parliament is to hold an election for the head of RTVS. Apart from the current director Václav Mika, who is reaching the end of his five-year term, TASR General Director Jaroslav Rezník has also announced his candidacy.