Czech public media fee: Babiš says strike won't stop abolition

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said that the strike at Czech Television and Czech Radio, and the rallies held in their support, will not change the ruling coalition's plans: the licence fee for broadcasting will be abolished regardless, and both public broadcasters will be funded from the state budget.

What Babiš said about the strike

Before flying to Warsaw for talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the head of government briefly commented on Tuesday's events. He said he had watched Czech Television's broadcast the day before: “It was interesting, we recalled the building of the metro, prefab housing estates and much more. So I take note.” Babiš also acknowledged that demonstrations are a right of citizens.

At the same time, the prime minister said, the protests in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and other cities change nothing in the coalition's plans. ANO, SPD and the Motorists are delivering on their programme and will abolish the licence fees.

The scale of the strike

Because of the government's plan to move funding from fees to the state budget, 1,376 employees and freelancers of Czech Radio and 2,257 employees and contributors of Czech Television went on strike on Tuesday. Instead of live programming, both broadcasters spent the whole day airing mostly archive shows, and news bulletins ran only in a reduced format.

Over the weekend, Babiš allowed that the specific form of funding for public media would still be up for discussion. He denies that media independence is under threat. The concerns of TV and radio staff, a number of experts and the opposition were also dismissed earlier by Culture Minister Oto Klempíř (Motorists).

What the on-air debate is about

The topic was discussed on the Seznam Zprávy podcast “Ptám se já”, whose guest was Petr Dvořák, executive director of the Vltava Philharmonic Foundation and former director general of Czech Television. The conversation covered how the government and the media themselves are acting, whether voluntary payment of the fee could be a way out, and how much the Vltava Philharmonic will cost to build. The headline of the piece quotes Dvořák: abolishing the fees means the state will pay an extra 450 million crowns in loan interest alone — “so where is the saving?”.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz