Invited Czech politicians attended a session of the Parliamentary Committee for Media and Culture in Slovakia yesterday, at which they showed greatest interest in how the public radio and TV broadcasters were merged into the new broadcasting corporation RTVS.
A similar merger of public radio and TV broadcasting organisations has been under debate for some time also in the Czech Republic, and so the guests at the meeting were particularly interested in the practical aspects of the merger.
Senator Jiri Oberfalzer said he could not understand why the TV broadcaster STV had run into such financial trouble because in the Ceska Televize has managed to hold its own against large commercial competitors. Committee chairman Dusan Jarjabek blames the bad financial condition of STV on bad legislation, but there have been allegations of crony contracts being to blame.