The Czech government blocked the new media law and wants to change the financing of CT and CRo only by amending the existing standard. The plan can bring less money and more tension.
According to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the Czech government will no longer deal with the draft law on public media by the Minister of Culture Oto Klempíř and will use an amendment to the current law to change the financing of Czech Television (ČT) and Czech Radio (ČRo). TASR informs about this according to the Novinky.cz and iRozhlas servers.
- The government will not deal with the new media law from the Minister of Culture.
- The change in the financing of public media will be addressed by amending the law.
- The proposal envisaged the abolition of concessionaire fees and financing from the state.
“The government will no longer deal with the media law presented by Minister Klempíř due to 400 comments. In order to transfer the financing of public media under the state budget, we will use the amendment of the current law,” Babiš told CT.
The budget would be reduced
In mid-April, Klempíř presented a draft of legislation, by which he wanted to cancel concessionaire fees from next year and finance public service media with a specific amount from the state budget. According to this proposal, both Czech Television and Czech Radio would receive less money for their activities in 2027 than they will receive from concession fees this year.
The directors of ČT and CRo, Hynek Chudárek and René Zavoral, wrote in an open letter to Babiš on Wednesday that the change will lead to destabilization of the media and there is no rational reason for it. They asked the Prime Minister to stop the negotiations on draft media laws and also to establish a working group on the topic, as he promised, and to enable a substantive and professional debate on the future of the Czech public media.
