On Thursday, the RTVS Council, the supervisory body of the public broadcaster, discussed the news production with regards to the main political debate “Sobotne dialogy” aired on Saturday, 19 August. The programme hosted the leaders of Republika and Kotlebovci, two political parties running in the early elections, both representing radical nationalistic movements. The Chairman of the RTVS Council Igor Gallo stated that the idea behind the programming of the cycle of debates was “unfortunate”.
The show has been running since the beginning of August, hosting leaders of political entities that are close to each other in terms of program and ideology priorities. In order to be invited to the main public TV and radio debates, the parties should have been addressing a similar electorate for a long time.
At Thursday’s meeting of the RTVS Council, the news department editor-in-chief Anna Samelova backed the programming of the debate that follows the political views in common of the invited political parties on the topics discussed. According to her, last Saturday’s debate did not show any signs of spreading fascist or communist ideology. Samelova finds unjustified any accusations of RTVS promoting such ideas.
The public broadcaster’s management backs the programming by saying that they wanted to differentiate the nature of the holiday discussions from the shows during the year. It believes that debates of this type should not only confront ideologically different political parties, but also compare the views of parties that are close to each other in terms of their programmes. "I don't consider it a mistake," stressed Ľuboš Machaj, Director General of RTVS.
Samelova added that the public broadcaster is obliged by law to give floor to minority opinion in society. She pointed out that RTVS cannot ignore political entities that "have their representatives in the Slovak and European parliaments and their ideas and opinions have been present in Slovakia for a long time." She also pointed out that the parties' activities had not been banned by the court.
The RTVS Council’s Chairman Gallo agrees with fulfilling legal obligations and respecting minority opinion. However, he pointed out that it was the idea behind the programming of these political debates that provoked the actions.
On Saturday, the day of the live broadcast of the show, several activists including RTVS senior editors expressed their disapproval with hosting the two leaders in a live programe. The protesters were standing in front of the national public radio building bearing letters of the inscritption “Stop fasizmu”, meaning “stop fascism” when translated into English.
Source: RTVS, TASR
