The Slovakian parliament on Thursday approved a government plan to overhaul the country's public broadcaster RTVS, following months of protests from opposition parties and RTVS employees.
All 78 members of parliament from the three social democratic and nationalist governing parties voted in favour of the controversial law.
The opposition members of parliament left the chamber in protest, boycotting the vote.
RTVS is to be replaced by a new broadcaster called STVR starting from July 1.
The plan to overhaul the public broadcaster RTVS had been widely criticized by opposition politicians, journalists and media organizations. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to which RTVS belongs, also criticized the plans as a threat to media independence.
Critics accused the government of wanting to replace RTVS, which was considered objective and trustworthy in opinion polls, with a compliant propaganda broadcaster for the government.
After tens of thousands of people repeatedly responded to the opposition's calls for protest in the first few months of the year, the movement lost momentum following the opposition's defeat in the presidential election in April and an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15.
Only a few hundred people protested against the government and its media plans in Bratislava on Tuesday.