Public broadcaster unions reject ministry’s claim of progress in talks on financing reform

Unions at Czech Radio and Czech Television have denied that Tuesday’s meeting with Culture Minister Oto Klempíř on the planned overhaul of public media financing had achieved a breakthrough and brought their stands closer. According to the ministry’s statement, the two sides managed to find agreement in several key areas of the draft bill.

Czech Radio’s union representative said no tangible progress had been made and the public broadcasters had merely repeated their reservations to the bill, pointing out the dire consequences the reform would have in terms of pesonnel and output.

The unions declared an open-ended strike alert two weeks ago over a planned government law on public service media, which among other measures would shift broadcaster funding from licence fees to the state budget.