Senate against plan to abolish public broadcasting license fees

The Senate has come out against the planned abolition of radio and television license fees for the country’s national broadcasters, Czech Television and Czech Radio. In a resolution, it urged the government to abandon what it called the dismantling of a system that has functioned reliably for more than 30 years. Senators warned that scrapping license fees and shifting funding to the state budget would expose public service media to subjective decision-making and political pressure. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said on Monday that the abolition of license fees is included in the government’s policy program and that changes are expected from 2027. Senators also expressed the view that public service media are a key pillar of the Czech Republic’s information security at a time of information warfare waged against EU member states, particularly by Russia.