Government approves bill abolishing television and radio license fees

The Czech government has approved an amendment to the law abolishing television and radio licence fees and replacing them with direct state funding for public broadcasters. According to Culture Minister Otto Klempíř the proposed annual amount is fair, predictable and indexed to inflation. Czech Television would receive 5.74 billion crowns a year, while Czech Radio would receive 2.065 billion crowns. Under the proposal, Czech Television would lose a billion crowns annually, Czech Radio roughly 350 million.

The plan has drawn widespread criticism from the opposition, media experts and employees of Czech Television and Czech Radio, who are on strike alert and are planning to go on a warning strike next Monday. Their demands for guarantees in the proposed law that they would not be open to political pressure have not been met. The culture minister stated that this was not necessary since no changes have been made to the other two laws pertaining to the operation and mission of the country’s public broadcasters.

The funding bill is expected to stir heated debate in Parliament.