THE COUNCIL of the Slovak Television (STV) public service channel has accepted 19 candidates for the second round of elections to the post of STV director.
A public hearing of the candidates will last from December 4-6, at which point the council will debate the candidates' presentations and hold the first vote. If it does not elect a director with a simple majority from the 15 council members, the next round will take place on December 11.
The candidates list contains many applicants who ran for the post in the first round of elections, including the director of the Forza production house, Roman Lipták (Forza is owned by Ján Kováčík, the managing director of the private TV Markíza). Other candidates include a media advisor living in the Czech Republic, Radim Hreha, who was reportedly suggested to Slovak PM Robert Fico by former Czech leader Jiří Paroubek; Jozef Heriban, a former MP with the ANO party of former Markíza owner Pavol Rusko; and the STV spokesman under former director Richard Rybníček, Branislav Zahradník.
"I think that this time a director will be elected," said the chairman of the STV Council, Miroslav Kollar. The second round of elections is being held in line with a recent revision to the STV Act, according to which a simple majority instead of a two-thirds majority of STV council members will be enough to elect a director.