Czech Republic: attack on public media
The Czech Republic's governing parties passed a bill on Friday night reforming the funding of the country's public service broadcasters. Under the new legislation, radio stations and TV channels will see their funding cut by 15 percent – and the money will no longer come from licence fees but from the state budget. The opposition has described the reform as an attack on freedom of expression and protests have been held in Prague and other cities.
Systematic undermining of democracy
This is more than just an attack on the broadcasters, Hospodářské noviny explains:
“From a broader perspective, we are witnessing an attack on the institutions of liberal democracy. The government is already attacking independent courts, including the Constitutional Court, as well as civil society and human rights organisations. In fact it's attacking everything it can't control. ... Democracy itself is not under immediate threat. But the government is systematically undermining the conditions under which it can function. ... If the government gains control over the media – and that is precisely the aim of the attempts to control ČT and ČRo – elections will no longer be completely fair.”
This isn't Scandinavia
Reflex dismisses the government's narrative that in other European countries electronic media are funded by the state without any problems:
“Babiš is an all-powerful demagogue who scorns parliamentary democracy and is guided solely by personal interests. Anyone who idealistically claims that incorporating the funding of public media into the state budget poses no threat to their independence is merely parroting the mendacious reassurances of Babiš and [the Minister for Culture, who is responsible for the media Oto] Klempíř. We're not living in Scandinavia here but in a country with a political culture that is very much aligned with that of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Czech government's closest ally.”
Outrage alone not enough
For Seznam Zprávy the battle over the public broadcasters is not yet lost:
“During the committee stage and the second reading in parliament it will be the opposition's task, alongside making legitimate protests, to find ways of introducing at least some safeguards into the system of state-controlled licence fees in order to at least partially protect payments to the media from the state budget from direct political influence. This could be called damage limitation. It will be more labour-intensive than the outrage itself, but at least, if not more, useful.”