At yesterday’s meeting, the STA Supervisory Board appointed Igor Kadunc as the new STA director. He will take up his full term on January 1st next year, and will run the agency as acting director from October 31st. Kadunc recently said goodbye to the position of director general of the public broadcaster RTV and left it in disarray, just like his education – knowledge of a foreign language does not meet the conditions for the position of director of STA.
What does the appointment of Igor Kadunc as the new director of STA mean, in violation of the tender rules for journalistic freedom? Nothing good, as the left is hijacking the media again.
Not so long ago, we reported on the poor results – both financial and drop in ratings – that Kadunc produced on RTV. Due to the latter, he did not even qualify for the second round of candidates in January this year, when he ran for director again.
Kadunc is the fresh power of the Slovenian media?
But this did not deter him from trying at the Slovenian Press Agency, which was abandoned by long-time director Bojan Veselinović. In the end, Kadunc was the only candidate for the director of STA, but in addition to fulfilling the conditions set by law, candidates must have at least a university degree, have at least 10 years of work experience in the media, of which at least five years of managerial experience, and they must be fluent in at least one world language at a higher level. And here is the problem.
Namely, Kadunc does not meet the condition of knowing a foreign language at a higher level. He apparently thinks that he can – as proof he sent a certificate of a French language course in his job application, which he had supposedly attended back in 1981. It is not known exactly where he attended this course, but it is supposedly recorded that he reads and writes more slowly. He supposedly had the same problem on RTV, as his knowledge does not actually correspond to the basic level – but they obviously looked over his shoulders there. Given that the STA supervisory board is controlled by supervisors appointed by the previous governments of Miro Cerar and Marjan Šarec, our predictions that Kadunc will be elected director of the STA despite not fulfilling the conditions have been confirmed.
President Mladen Terčelj told STA that the decision was made by a majority vote of supervisors. Terčelj also estimated that the new director will come to this position with fresh strength and will be able to continue talks with the government, which he hopes will be constructive. If Kadunc is the fresh strength of the Slovenian media, it is looking really bad.