PRAGUE — Tens of thousands of Czechs rallied in Prague on Sunday against the government’s plan to scrap the public media fee and fund Czech Television and Czech Radio from the state budget, a change critics say would dent the broadcasters’ independence and viability.
Protesters packed Letná Park, the hillside square overlooking the capital where huge crowds gathered during the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Organisers from the civic group Million Moments for Democracy (Milion Chvilek) said Sunday’s turnout had already exceeded an anti-government protest of more than 200,000 people in March, and predicted it could end up as the largest demonstration since the revolution that swept away Communist rule and propelled dissident playwright Václav Havel to power. The group’s chairman, Mikuláš Minář, put the crowd at an estimated 350,000 people.
The rally came two days before the November 17 public holiday commemorating the start of the Velvet Revolution. Many protesters wore pointed hats folded out of newspapers as a tribute to the animated character who has introduced Czech Television’s nightly children’s bedtime stories for decades, and carried signs reading “Hands off the media” and “Let media deal with politicians.” Speakers included students, soldiers and former dissidents who signed the Charter 77 initiative. “I know that our entire Czech Television is a guarantee of truth and objectivity,” pensioner Milana Rudolfova, 72, told Reuters. “If we do not have public television and radio then unfortunately we will not be able to believe anything anymore.”
The populist government of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, backed by the far-right SPD and the eurosceptic Motorists parties, accuses Czech private and public media of bias. Its draft bill would cancel a 205-crown ($9.26) monthly household broadcasting fee currently used to fund the public broadcasters, replacing it with financing from the state budget. The bill has passed a preliminary vote in parliament and awaits further debate.
Critics say shifting funding to the state budget would undercut the media’s relationship with paying viewers and make the sector susceptible to political pressure. A 15% financing cut proposed as part of the change would bring television’s nominal budget to the level of 2008 and radio’s to 2005, which the broadcasters say is unworkable. Opposition parties have compared the proposals to changes in Hungary under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who built an array of pro-government media, and slammed the government for rushing the initial bill through parliament in the middle of the night in October.
“An elected government has the right to govern but it does not have the right to do whatever it wants and to dismantle democratic institutions,” Minář told the crowd. “Show that your aim is not to take control of them and let experts propose genuine safeguards for their independence from political power.” Babiš says the government is merely meeting a promise to lighten the financial burden on people, and has vowed to press ahead with the plan despite the protests, denying it would affect media freedom.
The dispute has been building for weeks. Earlier this month, Czech public television and radio workers escalated the fight with a one-day strike that led to broadcast curbs and protests backed by artists and students. With the Velvet Revolution anniversary on Tuesday, organisers and the government alike are watching whether Sunday’s show of force changes the arithmetic in parliament, where the bill still awaits its next debate.
