The new chairman of the Council CREATE became its current member and a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Culture under the leadership Martina Šimkovičová (nom. CIS) Peter Benčurík.
Benčurík is the general director of the Section of Art, Creativity, Media and Copyright at the Ministry of Culture. Šimkovičová also appointed him to the STVR Council in August 2024.
At the council meeting, he received seven votes out of nine in a secret ballot, Martin Daňko received two votes.
Together with Lukáš Machal, who holds the post of general secretary of the service office and is a close associate of Minister Šimkovičová, Benchurík is the second high-ranking employee of the Ministry of Culture, who is also in charge of the STVR Council.
Machala is the vice-chairman of the STVR Council, he also temporarily led its negotiations for ten months after the death of the chairman of the council Jozef Krošlák at the age of 68 in July 2025.
At the same time, the European Act on Media Freedom mandates the protection of media plurality and independence in EU countries, and according to European legislation, countries are supposed to ensure that the bodies and councils of public media are independent.
The European Commission is already assessing whether the Slovak authorities comply with the European Act on Media Freedom.
This was pointed out on Tuesday by one of the members of the council, Igor Gallo, who says that he sees the results of the election “as a definitive burial of the independence of the STVR Council”, since another high-ranking official of the Ministry of Culture became its leader.
In his speech, he criticized the election of Benčurík, saying that the council should become another section of the Ministry of Culture.
