The Slovak legislation affecting the media is very strange. This is what the RTI radio team might think. A station, which spread the good word of Slovakia far beyond its borders, has been formed almost four years ago on April 9, 2005. It was built on the wreckage of the former Radio Tatry, which was one of the oldest radio stations in Slovakia. Its former license was bought off by the then close members of the Fun radio national media group and this competing radio group stopped the broadcasting of Radio Tatry back in 2001. The former idea of Radio Tatry was to return a few years later, but it almost ended again before it was to be relaunched.
There was a new license issued to Radio Tatry several years later. But the new license almost expired, because the station did not go on air for almost a year after the license was issued. That’s when the new investor stepped in. Czech-British businessman Jan Telenský, the owner of the Aqua City resort in Poprad. He funded the launch of the new Radio Tatry – RTI, which took over a very lucrative frequency in the Tatras region – 94.2 MHz, and it covered a big part of the northeast of Slovakia, a part of Poland, and even part of Hungary. And it was indeed the first Slovak regional station to go on satellite. On Eurobird, 28.5 East, it launched a service for the subscribers of SKY Digital satellite platform in the UK.
The project was very ahead of its time, and we can say, that the idea was quite megalomanic. But despite that, it gained a lot of attention. In the United Kingdom, RTI was available to millions of homes, which subscribed to SKY Digital. Its importance grew as it was a medium, which spread the word about Slovakia abroad. The programming involved Slovak programs during the day and English shows in the evening and night hours. Part of the programming was produced in Poprad, part in London. This worked out for a couple of years. Just like once there was a BBC World Service affiliate broadcasting on Slovak FM airwaves in both English and Slovak.
What no one thought of, was that the existence of this station was not possible from the beginning due to Slovak laws. The English broadcasting on Slovak airwaves did not comply with the Language law applied in Slovakia. This law does not permit the broadcasting of any foreign language shows, if they are not translated and aired also in Slovak. The Slovak media regulator tolerated the English shows on RTI for a few years, but in the recent months, it has forced the station to fully comply with the laws.
The managers of the RTI station had two options. They could’ve tried to translate the whole English programming into Slovak, or they could have gone on breaking the laws and risk the sanctions. They later made an alternative choice, and decided to shut down the broadcast. This might have been the worst solution of all there was to choose. Even the lobbying of the people from the British Embassy in Bratislava did not help to solve the problem in a better way. And even though there were many positive listener views expressed and letters written, the problem remained.
This is an end to a project, which was ahead of its time, in Slovakia. This is an end to the one and only foreign language commercial radio in our region. Even though similar project in other countries are quite common. Not far – at our neighbors in Prague, there is a French station RFI direct on the FM airwaves. The Czech commercial station Expresradio airs English language shows regularly. Many Czech stations also broadcast in Slovak – the Czech media laws make this possible. In Austria, the situation is similar. Even the public broadcaster ORF runs one channel in English – and everything is fine. There is no problem with foreign languages in most European Union countries – unfortunately excluding Slovakia.
The Slovak system still features a strange law that is to protect the state language. This law orders the media to speak Slovak. With almost no exceptions. The Czech language is generally accepted, but Hungarian and other minority languages are only possible only on the public Slovak Radio channels. The Slovak public radio is supported by law to produce broadcasts also in the languages of minorities. The private media though may only cultivate the official state language. If you want to broadcast in other languages, then don’t file for a commercial license in Slovakia. Only if you can provide fully simultaneous translation.
Radio RTI did not score high ratings in the Slovak radio polls. In Slovakia, outside Poprad, it was very little known. Many Slovaks might have noticed it just now for the very first time. But RTI showed that an interesting idea in an open society can spread far beyond our borders. The station though had bad luck. In did not broadcast only in Slovak, but tried to improve the knowledge of other languages in Slovakia, whilst spreading good word of Slovakia in Europe. And this is why it will be missed. The legislation will not be changed overnight. And we might protect the use of Slovak language even if it means that we will not learn to speak any other language. I am not happy, that Slovakia in some aspects still does not seem like a modern country in modern Europe. And it is questionable, whether we are willing to open up enough.
UPDATE @ 21:00 H: Radio RTI FM service in Slovakia will probably continue, but only in Slovak. I have received a phonecall from Mr. Jozef Sobotka, who told me that there are negotiations on keeping the service up on Slovak frequencies. RTI now airs music and jingles on frequency 94.8 MHz in Košice and there are talks on putting the whole service also on air in Poprad on 94.2 MHz. The international Slovak-English service of RTI has definitely ended. The Slovak service may resume with a new investor, as the FM license is valid until February 2, 2012.
