Czechs protest against abolishing public media licence fee — Interia
In the Czech Republic, thousands of people took to the streets of Prague and other cities to protest against the government’s proposal to abolish the licence fee for public broadcasting. Employees of Czech Radio and Czech Television also launched a 24-hour strike, Interia reports.
Strike and limited broadcasting
From midnight, Czech Radio and Czech Television significantly limited their broadcasts. As the law does not allow them to stop broadcasting completely, reruns and shortened news bulletins were aired. Listeners and viewers were also informed about the reasons for the protest action.
The management of the public broadcasters assured that in the event of emergencies, audiences would receive full information. During the strike, they notably provided current traffic updates. On most public radio stations, statements by the “Publicly” initiative, which organised the protest, were broadcast before 8:00, 12:00 and 18:00.
Rallies in several cities
Demonstrations took place in Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Liberec and Hradec Králové, among other cities. Students and artists took part in the Prague action: eight separate columns converged on Wenceslas Square. According to the organisers’ estimate, 25,000 people gathered there.
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About a thousand people protested in Ostrava, while several hundred gathered in each of Liberec and Karlovy Vary. All actions began at 16:36 — a reference to the first-reading vote on the bill, which took place at 4:36 on the night of 23 to 24 October. The initiative was then supported by votes from the governing coalition.
Opposition and government positions
The opposition says the bill was not publicly discussed and demands that it be withdrawn from parliament. Protest participants made the same demand. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš rejected the proposal, stressing that abandoning the licence fee is part of the coalition programme presented after last year’s elections.
Media workers and participants in the actions believe that changing the funding model could threaten the independence of public radio and television and reduce funding for programmes for children and young people. One symbol of the protests was newspaper hats styled after the character from the opening sequence of the Czech television programme “Good Night”.
