On July 6, six members of Mongolian National Public Radio and TV /MNPRTV/’s Collective Board obtained the legal permission for a hunger strike and went to hospital for health test. According to the Collective Board’s (CB) statement, the planned hunger strike will call to dismiss MNPRTV’s National Board (governing body of MNPRTV) which is alleged to have repeatedly violated the Law on PSB since its very inception.

As a result of the dispute between MNPRTV’s Collective Board and its National Board which has been continued since 2006 till now, Collective Board members have been on strike since 14 June 2007. The dispute heated up when the professional skills test (attestation) conducted among MNPRTV personnel led to the firing of over 40 members of MNPRTV staff.

In response to the strike, MNPRTV’s National Board revoked MNPRTV General Director’s decision to sack a large number of journalists under the pretext of poor attestation results. On 27 June L. Ninjjamts, who was appointed as chief of MNPRTV’s Human Resources Department without any regard to established selection procedure, was dismissed by the National Board’s decision. L. Ninjjamts is considered by the CB to be the initiator of mass firing. The CB viewed this as a short of their demands and continued their strike.

The Parliament set up a working group to look into the events surrounding the strike. The National Board and Collective Board are now engaged in bilateral consultations to resolve the outstanding differences.

The Law on Public Radio and TV came into force on 1 July 2005, leading to substantial changes in the policy of Mongolian Public Radio and TV.