The Council has nine members, who are elected and repealed by the National Council of the Slovak Republic.

Membership in the Council

To be able to be elected as a member of the Council the person has to be a citizenship of the Slovak Republic with permanent residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic, aged not less than 25 years, with full legal capacity and integrity and not been convicted of a deliberate crime.

Term of office of Council members

A Council member may be elected for a maximum of two terms of office. One third of the Council shall be renewed every two years.

The session of the Council

The Chairperson of the Council coordinates the Council activities and acts in its name in external relations. The Council reaches a quorum if at least seven of its members are present at its session. The approval of at least five Council Members is needed for a valid resolution. The Council votes publicly. A secret ballot is used for the election of the Chairperson and the Vice- Chairperson of the Council.

Mission

The mission of the Council is to enforce the public interest in the exercise of the right to information, freedom of expression, and the rights of access to cultural values and education, and to perform state regulation in the areas of broadcasting, retransmission and the provision of on-demand audiovisual media services. The Council ensures the maintenance of plurality of information in the news programmes of public service broadcasters and licensed broadcasters. It also supervises compliance with legislation regulating broadcasting, retransmission, and the provision of on demand audiovisual media services, and performs state administration in the area of broadcasting, retransmission and the provision of on-demand audiovisual media services in the scope provided for by the Act on Broadcasting and Retransmission (ABR).

The competence of the Council for the performance of state administration include:

• deciding on broadcasting licences
• deciding on registrations for retransmission services and on the suspension of retransmission
• deciding on the assignment of additional frequencies to the public service broadcaster
• commencing a procedure for the granting of a terrestrial broadcasting licence
• determining programme types and assessing the broadcaster’s classification of communication as a particular programme type or as ancillary broadcasting
• supervising compliance with duties laid down in the ABR and other specific legislation
• imposing sanctions on a broadcaster, retransmission operator, the provider of an on demand audiovisual media service, and on those who broadcast or operate a retransmission service without authorization
• making regular reports to the European Commission on the performance of selected duties by broadcasters and providers of on-demand audiovisual media service and cooperating with the Commission in the application of the provisions of the ABR, in particular in compiling and publishing a list of of events of major importance for the public
• processing statistics on broadcast programmes focussing on statistics relating to the broadcasting of European works and independent productions based on broadcaster´s documentation and statistics on the share of European works in the area of providing on demand audiovisual media services
• handling complaints against violations of the ABR
• supervising compliance with the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and representing the Slovak Republic in the Standing Committee for Transfrontier Television of the Council of Europe
• participating in the drafting of laws and other acts of general application in the area of broadcasting, retransmission, and provision of on-demand audiovisual media service
• expressing a standpoint on proposals to sign international treaties in the area of broadcasting, retransmission and provision of on-demand audiovisual media services, on their fulfilment, proposing signing international treaties, international conventions and other
  international legal acts or accession to them
• taking part in the exchange of information and cooperating with international organisations or bodies of other countries with responsibilities in the area of broadcasting, retransmission and the provision of on-demand audiovisual media service
• cooperating with the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal Services of the Slovak Republic in connection with frequencies used for broadcasting
• conducting a statistical survey of coverage of the territory of the Slovak Republic by radio signal and television signal, and on the number of inhabitants who receive the radio signal and television signal emitted by licenced broadcasters
• co-operating with self-regulatory bodies in the area of broadcasting, retransmission and the provision of on-demand audiovisual media services for the purposes of creating effective selfregulation systems