On the day of the selection procedure for the position of Director of Slovak Radio and Television (STVR), I decided – as an outraged creator of radio plays – to organise a student protest (in collaboration with students of the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and Students for Open Culture!). The protest, titled About Us Without Us – Student Protest for the Preservation of Public Service Broadcasting at STVR, took place outdoors, on a parcel owned by the city, directly adjacent to the radio building, and lasted six hours – the entire duration of the selection process. Its aim was to draw attention to the exclusion of the public from the proceedings and to the lack of transparency in a process that concerns a key public-service institution. There were, however, several reasons for organizing the protest:

1. Closed doors. For the first time in its history, the STVR Council excluded the public from its meetings as well as from the hearings of the candidates for director. Such a precedent undermines the basic principles of democracy and the very nature of public-service broadcasting.

2. A narrow circle of decision-makers. The limited and internally interconnected composition of the STVR Council raised concerns about conflicts of interest, clientelism and corruption.

3. Politicization. There was a real risk that STVR would lose its independence and become an institution under strong political influence – threatening objective journalism and pluralism of opinion (a fear which, as we can observe today, has proven justified).

The protest took the form of a relay – each hour, new groups of students from various departments joined in: dramaturgy, directing, acting, journalism, documentary, sound, music and film. Throughout the relay, protesters could engage by:

listening to the publicly accessible audio stream of the selection procedure;
creating protest signs and banners;
participating in the Wiretap happening;
writing letters to the STVR Council – participants had the opportunity to write a letter which was then submitted to the radio’s registry office.

The Wiretap happening took place during the breaks in the selection proceedings, when the public audio stream was switched off. It was based on the simple proverb “the walls have ears” and served as a metaphor for the inaccessibility of direct contact and information. Two protesters held an improvised “wiretapping system” (constructed from cups and string), attaching one end to the radio building (radio property) and using the other end, several meters away, to “listen in”, taking place in public space (outside radio property).

A final element of the protest became the chalk signatures of students on the pavement in front of the radio building – something I now watch with joy as a precursor to the Chalk Revolution of 2025.