Thousands of staff at Czech public broadcasters strike over funding plans | Czechia

Thousands of public service media workers in the Czech Republic are staging a 24-hour strike after the government of billionaire prime minister Andrej Babiš put forward controversial plans to change the way the country’s public broadcasters are financed.

Industrial action by Czech Television and Czech Radio staff on Monday marks the biggest escalation yet in the months-long conflict between the broadcasters and Babiš’s populist administration.

“The reforms were prepared without consultation and without any guarantees on the independence of public service media,” said Pavla Kubálková, a member of the strike committee of Czech Television. “Most of society remembers what news looked like before 1989, when politicians chose content. We don’t want to go back there.”

The law, approved by the cabinet last week, will abolish the license fee system and fund Czech Television and Czech Radio through the annual state budget allocation.

According to the broadcasters, the changes will essentially return funding to 2008 levels and cut around £14.3 million from Czech Radio’s annual budget and £35.8 million from Czech Television’s budget, despite almost two decades of inflation since then. Executives say the cuts will lead to hundreds of job losses and significant cuts to programming.

But the dispute isn’t just about money. Kubálková said this was evolving into a wider fight over the future independence of public service media, amid concerns that direct funding from the state would subject broadcasters to political pressure. “The most important thing for us is to preserve independence and the direct relationship between Czech Television and its viewers,” he said.

“Employees of both broadcasters are ready to defend their services to citizens, and we are determined to continue protesting even stronger,” he added. “We will do everything we can to defend public service media in its current form.”

Their concerns were further strengthened last week when Josef Nerušil, an MP from the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, which is part of the ruling coalition, suggested that changes in funding should ultimately lead to greater scrutiny of public broadcasters’ broadcasts.

“The main thing is to change financing,” said Nerušil said Czech Radio. “But if we’re talking about what public service media should cover, then of course we want to move on to a broader discussion next.”

He added that his goal is “to control not only the financial side but also the content side.” The MP later accused the broadcasters of political bias.

Culture Minister Oto Klempíř, who presented the law last week, said publishers must prove they can work more efficiently for less money. In written comments to the Guardian, he rejected claims that the funding offer threatened the independence of public service media.

“Transferring funds to the state budget does not change anything about the independence of Czech Television or Czech Radio,” Klempíř said. “Their legal status, the manner in which the governing councils are appointed, their powers and guarantees of editorial freedom remain unchanged.”

He argued that the changes only affected the method of financing, stating that “an increasing number of European countries already finance public service media from public budgets. This is not a Czech experience, but a broader trend.”

Babiš also rejected suggestions that the changes threatened editorial independence. “We want you to save, but you don’t,” the Prime Minister said. said A public broadcaster journalist at a press conference.

Both publishers reacted to the changes with alarm. Czech Television president Hynek Chudárek said the law would “effectively liquidate” parts of the broadcaster, while Czech Radio general manager René Zavoral said the cuts would affect regional reporting, children’s programs and foreign correspondents.

The strike will be felt at both publishers. Czech Television said all channels except children’s services would be affected, as well as websites, streaming platform and social media output. Czech Radio plans to merge some stations and change program schedules, with presenters explaining the changes live.

“The strike is a way to show the audience what they have to lose,” said Czech Radio strike committee member Jan Herget.

Media experts say the dispute is unprecedented in recent Czech history. “The strike in the Czech public service media is a rather unusual event,” said Marína Urbániková, associate professor of media studies at Charles University and Masaryk University.

He noted that Czech Television had not experienced a similar strike since 2001, when journalists protested political interference in the appointment of the broadcaster’s chief executive.

František Talíř, a Christian Democrat who chairs the parliament’s media committee, said on Czech Television: “We are going to the barricades because this is a direct attack on Czech Television and Czech Radio.” He said the opposition would use every means to block the bill and warned that the country was “copying the path of Slovakia”, referring to neighbor Czech Republic, whose government closed public broadcaster RTVS last year.

Zdeněk Hřib, leader of the opposition Pirate party and former mayor of Prague, said the financing plans would take the country “back not one year, but at least 36 years, to the time when there was state media.”

His party referred the changes to the European Commission and the Council of Europe’s Venice commission, arguing they could breach European standards to protect the independence of public service media.

These concerns have also attracted the attention of international media freedom groups. The coalition, led by the International Press Institute, called on the European Commission to examine the plans, saying in a joint statement that the bill risked “financially weakening broadcasters, eroding guarantees of their financial independence and breaching the European Media Freedom Act”.