Smolec Says: STV Live Broadcast From HZDS Congress Overshot the Mark

about it. Smolec was reacting to a Thursday stance by the Slovak Television Council claiming that the Slovak Television, by making two special live broadcasts from the congress on April 25, breached the balance of news reporting. The body requested Slovak TV director Igor Kubiš to draw the necessary consequences from the council`s finding. Smolec said, "when the council objectively views the situation like this, certainly I take the side of the council that perhaps it should not be done". However, he still thinks that the citizens are curious about what the chair of the strongest political grouping in Slovakia thinks. He insisted that including Vladimír Mečiar`s address into the program was right. According to Smolec, the situation could be eased by entries from the congresses of other parties. The public Slovak Television has changed its program on its first channel (STV 1) to bring two live broadcasts from the seventh HZDS congress held in Košice. The STV also disseminated one-hour appearance of Mečiar at the congress. STV employees told SITA the change of the program was announced on Friday, April 24, and added that such praxis is a "novelty" in the STV. STV program vice director Štefan Dlugolinský okayed the change. The STV has disqualified itself by the live broadcast and clearly showed that the HZDS has privatized and turned it into the movement`s press department, Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) leader, told SITA.