MThese citizens have gathered in central Prague to protest the Czech government’s plans to lift the license tax and finance public media through the state budget.
Opposers of this proposal warn that changes could enable politicians to influence media freedom and editorial independence.
The coalition government, comprised of the populist ANO party and two Eurosceptic right parties, insists the change will not affect editorial independence, but aims for public broadcasters to cut spending.
Parliament has approved the first reading of the bill late last month, while from then thousands of citizens have participated in the protests.
Currently, Czech families pay 205 choirs (about $9,44) a month for television and radio. Sunday’s protest was organised by the association Million Moments for Democracy, which said about 400 thousand people participated.
I know that the entire Cheek Television is a guarantee of truth and objectivity. If we don’t have television and public radio, then unfortunately we won’t be able to believe anything, 72-year-old pensioner Milana Rudolfova told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrej Babis has denied that the government intends to control public media.
Nobody wants to control public media, nobody wants to dictate what to say and do, and nobody wants to run them, Babis told the Czech News Agency.
He added that the current funding system is outdated and that many European countries are going into other models.
France lifted the license tax in 2022, while its public media are financed through part of the revenue from VAT. Norway lifted this tax in 2020 and passed public broadcaster financing on the national budget.
Opposers of the bill have compared the proposed changes to those undertaken in Hungary during former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s rule, when state media were under strong political control.
Even the international press freedom organisation, Reporters Without Borders, has criticised political attacks on the media in Czechia. Her office director in Prague, Pavol Szalay, had declared in June that political attacks on private and public media have become one of the characteristics of Andrej Babes’ governance.
