Czech Republic: public broadcasters in the crosshairs
The government in Prague has decided to scrap licence fees for Czech Television (ČT) and Czech Radio (ČRo). In future, the two broadcasters are to be financed by the state budget, but will receive less money than before. The opposition says the government is seeking to gag these key media outlets. Commentators are also critical of the move.
All about control
For Forum24, the government's intentions are clear:
“Licence fees are being abolished because this is the main prerequisite for political control over Czech Television and Czech Radio. Control over the content of both media outlets is, of course, also part of the plan. Josef Nerušil, a member of parliament with the governing camp, has stated quite bluntly what everyone feared: from now on both media organisations are to dance to the government's tune.”
Emulating Orbán and Fico's media policy
Reflex warns:
“Andrej Babiš’s government is going to extremes and intends to nationalise the public service media before the end of the year. It claims that this is merely a formality that will in no way compromise the independence of Czech Television and Czech Radio. Perhaps that would be true if we lived in Scandinavia rather than a country that is copying the authoritarian models of governance employed by its European allies, Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico.”
Tolerance of criticism is the key issue
For Népszava, the key criterion for independence is neither the type of funding nor the organisational model:
“The decisive question is what the intentions of those in power are. Is the government prepared to tolerate the existence of public service media that hold it to account, criticise it where necessary, or expose it? All we [here in Hungary] know now is that for the past 36 years it has neither wanted nor tolerated this. ... If the answer to this one question is 'yes', then it doesn't really matter what the structure looks like in the end. And if the answer is 'no', it matters even less.”