Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has criticized a plan by the new Czech government to abolish the broadcasting license fee, an economic lifeline for public media, without providing any structural alternative for funding public media.
The NGO on Monday called on Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Minister of Culture Oto Klempir to take industry stakeholders’ opinions into account and rigorously implement existing European legislation in this area.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis will ask Parliament on Tuesday for a vote of confidence on the basis of a program that could threaten the independence of public media outlets and that RSF had already strongly criticized alongside the Czech Syndicate of Journalists and Czech Radio (CRo).
It notably includes plans to abolish the broadcasting license fee, which currently is the main source of funding for public media outlets.
Ahead of the vote, the Public Media Alliance, RSF and their Czech and international partners sent an open letter to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture demanding guarantees for public media’s financial independence, notably for Czech Radio (CRo) and Czech Television (CT).
“In Czechia’s political and media context, the license fee remains the best guarantee of editorial independence and transparent funding for public media. The plan to abolish it is especially worrying because it offers no alternative that complies with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). If this plan is adopted by Parliament as it stands, RSF urges the government — before implementing its program — to take into account the views of the public media themselves and to rigorously apply the EMFA, something the new majority has so far refused to do,” said Pavol Szalai, the director of the RSF Prague Bureau
Since the publication of the recent RSF report, “Pressure on Public Media,” attacks on public outlets have continued to multiply. In Lithuania, LRT is facing an attempt to remove its director general through a legislative amendment. The public broadcaster had its budget reduced due to the political instrumentalization of an audit that has also been requested in Czechia by the local politicians.
Public media outlets in Western Europe are not immune to threats either: in Switzerland, the license fee is being questioned amid ongoing budget cuts and a popular initiative (a public referendum) scheduled for next March that particularly targets Swissinfo, the international broadcaster.
CRo, LRT and Swissinfo all hold the Journalism Trust Initiative certification, a standard developed by RSF to recognize high-quality media outlets that adhere to professional ethics.
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