The City TV Foundation was established in 1995 in Košice, Slovakia, to foster improvement in local television, especially in the formerly communist countries, where there had been no tradition of independent local television, and where its development was an important element in the development of a democratic, civil society.

In addition to staging the annual event, the foundation conducts training of local television managers, producers, cameramen and journalists, in Slovakia and in other countries. It has also produced a large database of information about local television stations across Europe, and functions as a distributor of local television programs among local stations.

The City TV Foundation is the Festival’s organizer. While the Festival is the foundation’s most visible undertaking, the foundation in fact works throughout the year, not only organizing each year’s annual event, but distributing programs, providing information and conducting training as well.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In 1998, it organized a “City Tribunal” coproduction project involving 12 stations in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. It has printed bulletins for local stations.

The Festival serves as an organizing mechanism for other activities of the foundation. The Festival brings the local television stations together to offer their experience and expertise, and to make known their needs.

Slovakia joined the European Union in May 2004 and the foundation will focus new efforts on those countries left outside – especially Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The City TV Foundation is led by Eva Dekanovska and Marcel Dekanovsky, who organized the first International Festival of Local Broadcasters in 1995.

Dekanovska and Dekanovsky cofounded TV Global(Get offer here ), which grouped together a number of local stations in Slovakia on a common national/local programming platform. Both have served as trainers abroad