Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said on Monday in response to the protests against the amendment to the media law that he did not know why the demonstration was taking place. According to him, the government only wants the public not to pay the fees for Czech Radio (ČRo) and Czech Television (ČT). At the press conference after the government meeting, he announced that the coalition will discuss the proposal of the amendment and the number of comments submitted to it in the evening at the coalition council. He added that the government does not take the protesters seriously, reports TASR in Prague.
- Andrej Babiš claims that he does not understand the protests against the amendment to the media law.
- The government wants Czech television and radio to be financed exclusively from the state budget.
“Why there is a demonstration, I don’t know. We just want… that the funding comes from the budget and that the people don’t pay for it… Because x number of people simply don’t watch or listen to public media. And 17 countries have it. I don’t know what is so difficult to understand. But I understand that there is a demonstration. We have freedom, that’s fine, but we don’t take these people seriously,” said Babiš.
The coalition decides on the law
He added that at 6:00 p.m., the coalition council will start meeting, where the individual parties will agree on what to do next. “It is true that there are a lot of comments on that proposal from individual departments, from ministers. We will discuss it today and I assume that it will move as soon as possible to the government, which will decide on it. And the opposition will get a place in the lower house. Even before that, we will discuss it with the directors of CRo and CT,” explained the prime minister. More than 400 comments were submitted to the proposal.
He emphasized that he is only interested in two things in the law, namely the amount guaranteed for the given media and the inflation clause. “I don’t deal with the content at all, what the media broadcasts. To put it simply, I’m completely fine with the laws that are there and all that’s needed is the funding – to say how much money they get and that’s all,” Babiš added. He insists that the law should be passed by Christmas.
Protests in front of the government office
The Milion chvilek association came with several dozen people to protest in front of the government office on Monday as well. On the spot, just like on Sunday, they chanted, for example, “Oto, zabaľ to”, by which they wanted to tell the Minister of Culture Oto Klempíř to resign from his position.
Babiš criticized several media at Monday’s press conference. He blamed them for not being objective and manipulating. He denied that the government was avoiding answering journalists’ questions. However, when a journalist from the Novinky.cz server confronted him that Babiš refused to come for an interview and did not answer the questions sent to him, the prime minister responded that he would not answer the questions sent to him, because he is from the “liveliest media” and can only ask questions at a press conference.
