RTVS launches project The Greatest Slovak

Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS), under which Radio Slovakia International belongs, has announced its anticipated project, named The Greatest Slovak (Najväčší Slovák). Explained at Tuesday's press conference at Bratislava Castle, a nationwide poll will be presented where Slovaks will be able to choose their favourite Slovak of all time. The project is a licenced spin-off of the 2002 BBC series 100 Greatest Britons, where participants in the United Kingdom could choose their greatest citizen. The nationwide poll will begin on November 1, with the nomination phase, allowing the public to vote via SMS for any Slovak personality from history or present, until the end of December. The RTVS project has already stirred controversy, with the advertisements for the series asking viewers if the Slovak wartime clerical-fascist catholic priest Jozef Tiso was "a martyr or a wartime criminal" or if Austro-Hungarian Empress Maria Teresa was "a puppet in the hands of her advisers or an enlightened reformist".