Czech Radio director answers Babiš: we need an open public debate

Czech Radio director René Zavoral has rejected Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s claim that he refuses to discuss the funding reform, and proposed holding the discussion in public. He said the last meeting on radio fees was not a substantive discussion but a dictate from coalition representatives and the prime minister.

What Babiš said

On Monday, Babiš said the Czech Radio director does not want to talk to the government. According to him, he has met repeatedly with Czech Television director Hynek Chudárek. Public debates on media funding are among the demands put to the prime minister by the organizers of Sunday’s demonstration on Old Town Square in Prague.

Zavoral’s response

Zavoral said the prime minister had not invited him to any meeting, and that the last one left no room for the radio’s arguments. If Babiš is prepared to hear the case for keeping the current funding system and budget level, he would welcome such a meeting. But the discussion, the director stressed, must be held publicly, for example in the Chamber of Deputies or at expert forums, not behind closed doors: the public has the right to hear the arguments of both sides and to know how the proposed changes would affect the independence of public media.

He again urged the coalition to withdraw the bill and begin a genuine expert discussion. In his view, the starting point must be preserving sufficient funding for the radio and statutory guarantees of independence from political interference: without these, there can be no talk of a responsible reform.

The demonstrators’ demands

The protest organizers, the Million Moments movement, demand that the bill, which they believe threatens the independence of Czech TV and Czech Radio, be withdrawn, and that the government apologize for how it pushed the bill through the first reading. They also demand a commitment not to interfere in other democratic institutions in this way. The invitation to Babiš to a public debate, the organizers note, still stands.

Last week the coalition unexpectedly decided to hold the first reading in the Chamber of Deputies of an amendment changing the funding of Czech TV and Czech Radio. Part of the public was outraged, and over the weekend the discontent spilled into a series of demonstrations. Before flying to Algeria on Monday, Babiš repeated that the coalition will not withdraw the bill.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz