Thousands of people took to the streets in Prague to protest media funding reform
A mass protest took place in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, with thousands of people participating to oppose the government’s planned reform of the public media funding system.
Critics of the reform argue that it will lead to cuts in funding for public broadcasters and create risks of political influence on their work.
On the eve of the protest, the Czech government decided to abolish license fees, which for decades had been the main source of funding for public television and radio.
The protest took place one day before a planned strike by employees of “Czech Television” and “Czech Radio.”
“The media do not belong to politics,” said Mikuláš Minár, a representative of the organization “A Million Moments” (Milion Chvilek), addressing the march participants.
The protesters marched through the city streets to the Czech Television building, carrying signs with slogans such as “Hands off public media.”
The government, led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s populist ANO party, claims that most citizens do not support the mandatory fees paid by households and businesses.
Instead, they plan to transfer this funding to the state budget, which, according to critics, could undermine media independence.
The proposed changes would effectively roll back funding levels to those of 2008–2024, representing a budget cut of approximately 15%.
The director general of Czech Television has warned that this could lead to the layoff of 300–500 employees out of a total staff of 2,900.
The Czech government maintains that the reform does not threaten the independence of public broadcasters, despite criticism from the media and the opposition.
The government also regularly accuses a number of media outlets—both public and private—of political bias, which further intensifies the debate surrounding the reform.
This was reported by Reuters.
Yesterday, a large-scale protest took place in Albania against the construction of a luxury resort on an ecologically sensitive stretch of the Adriatic coast. According to local media, more than 100,000 people took part in the rally.
