Government aims to move TV and radio funding under state control, which critics say undermines independence
Journalists at the Czech Republic’s public broadcasters have said they are prepared to go on strike unless the government of the billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, backs down on its plan to scrap licence fees and move funding under state control.
In what the journalists see as a threat to their independence, the government wants to replace the current system, in which households pay fees directly to public service media, with direct funding from the state budget. “Licence fees are cancelled,” the culture minister, Oto Klempíř, declared last week.
Babiš’s populist Ano (Yes) party pledged to end licence fees before last October’s parliamentary election, which it won. But the move is deeply controversial. On Wednesday, thousands of university students gathered at Prague’s Jan Palach Square and marched through the capital chanting: “We won’t let you take the media.”
Pavla Kubálková, of the Czech Television strike committee, said: “Adoption of the bill would introduce direct political influence over Czech Television by changing a funding model that has functioned for decades. We see this as a direct threat to its independence.”
