About 3,000 people gathered in Brno’s namesti Svobody yesterday afternoon to show their support for the public Czech Radio and Czech Television, and also marched through the centre, according to Petr Stika, secretary of the Brno-centre district.
Similar marches took place in other regional capitals around the Czech Republic, organised by the Million Moments association, under the slogan “Hands Off the Media”. Million Moments is demanding the withdrawal of a bill that would transfer the funding of Czech Television and Radio from license fees to the state budget. The bill is being promoted by Culture Minister Oto Klempir (Motorists) who said in a TV debate on Saturday that he plans to push it through swiftly.
The Brno protesters gathered on namesti Svobody, before marching to the Czech Radio Brno office on Beethovenova, where they filled the entire street.
Czech flags were on display, and protesters carried banners with slogans such as “We’re not scared of you, Klempir.” Along the march, they chanted slogans including “Freedom for the media” and “We are with you”.
Speakers on Dominikanske namesti drew attention to the potential threat to freedom of speech. Journalist, columnist and writer Ludek Navara noted that curtailing this freedom benefits certain parties.
“We have gathered to support Czech Television and Czech Radio, the public service media, but we sense that there is a bit more at stake here,” Navara said. “That if we lose the ability to choose from the programmes offered by Czech TV and Czech Radio, we will not only have fewer options, but we will also lose a part of our freedom. And not just the freedom of choice, but we will also lose a kind of platform for further orientation. It will impoverish us all. That is what we feel: that freedom of speech is very valuable to us, and public media are an integral part of it.”
The event lasted about an hour and a half, and the participants ended it by singing the Czech national anthem.
Under the proposed bill, Czech Radio and Television would receive a fixed amount from the state budget instead of fees from households and businesses. Czech Television would thus have a budget of CZK 5.74 billion next year, compared to CZK 8.5 billion this year. Czech Radio would receive CZK 2.07 billion from the state, CZK 400 million less than this year.
Experts, the opposition and the management of both media organisations have criticised the plan. Czech Television and Radio staff went on strike alert on 22 April, demanding that the government abandon the plan.
Thousands of people gathered across other regional capitals to show their support for Czech TV and Czech Radio, with demonstrations occurring in Ceske Budejovice, Plzen, Hradec Kralove, Pardubice, Liberec, Usti nad Labem, Jihlava, Olomouc, and Ostrava.
In March, the Million Moments association organised an anti-government demonstration in Prague’s Letna park, which was attended by around a quarter of a million people, according to the organisers. Demonstrators criticised the government for its actions regarding public media, the non-profit sector and culture, as well as for the significant influence of ANO’s far-right junior coalition partners, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists.
In early May, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital of Prague in support of Czech TV and Radio.
