Parliament sacks board; Bobosikova refuses to step down

Earlier in the evening the lower house also sacked the present supervisory board, whose decision in late December to appoint Jiri Hodac as the new General Director of Czech Television led to the crisis. Mr Hodac resigned on Thursday, one week after 100,000 people gathered on Prague's Wenceslas Square calling for him to step down for alleged political bias. The lower house will run Czech Television until a temporary General Director is appointed. The new Director will be expected to sack several executives appointed by Mr Hodac who have refused to resign. They include the controversial head of news Jana Bobosikova, who is accused of producing heavily biased coverage in the early days of the protest. Striking journalists who occupied the newsroom in protest at Mr Hodac's appointment said on Saturday that they would remain on strike until everyone appointed by Mr Hodac had left Czech Television. Meanwhile colleagues have described Mr Hodac as 'a broken man.'