MRT and AVMU will be reformed in autumn


The chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Elections and Appointments, Ilija Dimovski, scheduled a session on Monday, which will basically start the procedure for the election of the members of the new management bodies of MRT and the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU).

After the ruling party SDSM accused Dimovski of obstructing the procedure for electing the councils of MRT and AVMU, he scheduled a session of the Committee, although, according to him, there are still no signals of harmonized views among the parliamentary groups for the candidates who applied for the jobs published by the Parliament even before the presidential elections, which were “frozen” during the election period.

– I placed on the agenda the points for checking the bids for the nominations for the members of the MRT Program Council and the Council of AVMU, so that I will not be used as an alibi for allegedly obstructing the procedure, although I do not have information that there was any compliance between the parties regarding the selection of candidates – Dimovski told Nezavisen Vesnik.

He says that if the parties agree on their positions in the meantime, the procedure for selecting new officials in these two bodies is expected to end in mid-September. On Monday, the Committee on Elections and Appointments, as he explains, should only clear the list of candidates appearing in both competitions, in terms of fulfilling the set criteria and submitting appropriate documentation. At the end of August, it is estimated that a public hearing should be held in relation to the candidates who will remain in the game for positions in the councils of MRT and AVMU. Thereafter, the Home Committee with a two-thirds majority, which means nine MP votes, should draw up final lists of candidates that should then be elected in Parliament – also by a qualified majority.
The selection of the new management bodies of MRT and the AVMU should be conducted according to the new Law on Audio and Audiovisual Services that was adopted late last year, that is, over half a year ago, with 79 votes “in favor”, and after it was buried with opposition amendments and stuck in the Parliament Committee on Transport and Communications almost a year earlier. New Program Council of MRT and the AVMU Council, and then they need to select new directors of the public sector and the Agency. Marjan Cvetkovski and Zoran Trajcevski, people considered close to VMRO-DPMNE, occupied these posts for years.

28 candidates applied for the seven positions in the new composition of the Council of AVMU, including famous journalists and media workers, several professors and two members of the former Lustration Commission. The competition for the MRT Program Council is smaller, with 19 candidates applying for 13 positions, of which only six are from the current composition of the public service, while among other candidates there are also a few names of journalists.

(AMM)