STVR succeeds RTVS

As of Monday, STVR is now the national public broadcaster by law.
President Peter Pellegrini signed the Slovak Television and Radio Act (STVR), which is effective from Monday (1 July). This happened at the last minute on Sunday.  If the head of state had signed the law later, he would have acted unconstitutionally. Constitutional lawyer Vincent Bujňák pointed this out. MPs stipulated that the legislation would come into force on 1 July. If Pellegrini failed to sign the legislation by that date, he would have to veto it.
On Thursday (26 June) Peter Pellegrini said that he would sign the law this week and that he needed to get acquainted with it before signing it. However, he signed the law in the evening on Sunday (30 June) and it was published in the Collection of Laws before midnight.
International institutions, including the EBU, point out that this legislation is contrary to European law.  According to Pellegrini, if this law becomes a subject of interest for the European authorities, he hopes that they will apply the same standard to Slovakia as they do to other countries where changes in public media have taken place under much more turbulent circumstances.
For now, the new institution will operate without both a supervisory body and regularly appointed management. On Monday, the mandate of director general Ľuboš Machaj ended and the organisation has ceased to exist by law.
RTVS