Published on
15/06/2026 - 16:58 GMT+2
The Czech cabinet has signed off on legislation that would end licence fee funding for the country's public broadcasters, replacing it with direct state budget financing — a shift that journalists, media freedom groups and tens of thousands of citizens say puts editorial independence at risk.
The bill, approved on Monday, affects Czech TV and Czech Radio, which would instead receive fixed annual sums broadly in line with the licence fee revenues they collected between 2008 and 2024 — before a previous centre-right administration increased them last year.
Culture Minister Oto Klempir, from the Motorists party, framed the overhaul as a modernisation in line with broader European practice. "We are thus joining most EU countries which have already dropped this outdated financing method," he said at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
