STA, 29 April 2020 - With the terms of eight representatives of civil society on the programme council of RTV Slovenija running out on 16 May, the National Assembly appointed on Tuesday seven new members, with the eighth one to be looked for in a repeated call for applications.
Appointed to the programme council of the public broadcaster with a 51-36 vote yesterday were Alojz Bogataj, Nastia Flegar, Alenka Gotar, Rok Hodej, Slavko Kmetič, Janez Štuhec and Andrej Prebil.
They were selected from 60 candidates vetted by the parliamentary Privileges and Credentials Commission on 21 April after two rounds of voting. There were not enough votes for the eighth candidate, which will be sought in a repeated call for applications.
The opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), Social Democrats (SD) and Left claimed that the coalition parties had distributed programme council members among themselves, arguing that representatives of all viewers and listeners should be sitting in it instead.
They said that RTV Slovenija was a public institute, with LMŠ deputy group head Brane Golubović saying that "the day when the coalition will try to replace the director is not far away and it will take on the Slovenian Press Agency with the same zeal."
Left coordinator Luka Mesec said that the candidates who had not been endorsed featured scientists, media critics and former journalists.
He took issue with Prime Minister Janez Janša's attitude to RTV Slovenija and journalism in general, while Marko Koprivc of the SD said that the government had declared a "bitter war to journalism".
The government recently replaced three of the four government representatives on the 11-member supervisory board of RTV Slovenija.
The ruling SDS has also proposed the replacement of two out of the five representatives of the National Assembly in the supervisory board, but the idea was criticised by the left-leaning opposition at the relevant parliamentary commission.
The Privileges and Credentials Commission will vote on the proposal at one of its future sessions, after it received an opinion from the parliamentary legal service.
