Public media freedom has been eroded across central Europe. Now Czechs are rallying to protect theirs

Daniel Stach, a 38-year-old science presenter at Czech Television, has become one of the most recognised faces of the campaign to save the mandatory licence fees that fund the nation's public broadcasters.

He first walked into the broadcaster's headquarters in 2010 after answering a Facebook ad for a behind-the-scenes tour of the current affairs show Hyde Park CT24.

The first reading of the bill to scrap the fees was pushed through in the middle of the night in late October, prompting a wave of public resistance.

Staff at both broadcasters went on strike on 3 November, and demonstrations were held in 21 towns and cities across the country.

During the strike, Stach and fellow reporters read on-air announcements from pieces of paper, while some programming was replaced with archive material.

Czech TV's rolling news channel showed old footage of the communist-era president Gustáv Husák touring the Prague metro in place of its usual morning news programme.

Growing protests

Organisers say the next rally, planned for this Sunday on Prague's sprawling Letná Plain, could be the biggest in the country's post-revolution history.

Demonstrators look with nervousness to countries across central and eastern Europe, most notably neighbouring Slovakia but also Hungary, Poland and Serbia, where media independence has been severely weakened.

The prime minister, Andrej Babiš, has said his coalition of populist, hard-right nationalist and Eurosceptic parties will not be deterred by the protests.

He has suggested a number of alternative models, including voluntary payments, and ruled out raising taxes to pay for the change.

Babiš has accused the opposition and some journalists of firing up the public with unfounded claims that editorial independence is at risk.

He even compared a night-time protest outside parliament – the first reading of the bill was scheduled for 4.36am – to the 6 January assault on the Capitol in Washington.

Police in Prague said one person was detained after throwing a cobblestone in the direction of the lower house, but there were no reported arrests or injuries.

Government's defence

The culture ministry, which drew up the draft legislation, did not respond to a request for an interview.

Last week, Babiš published an op-ed on what he called the "seven lies" being peddled by the opposition over the licence fees, which together add up to 205 koruna per month.

Babiš, who acknowledged that the funding model could still change during the bill's second reading, argued that guaranteeing the broadcasters' funding by law would reduce politicians' direct influence.

Government figures often point to the "Nordic model" as an example of where scrapping the licence fee can work, though there is no single such model.

Finland and Sweden have replaced their licence fees with compulsory levies earmarked for public broadcasting, while Denmark and Norway fund their national broadcasters from general taxation.

The Czech proposal would cut funding to both broadcasters by about 15%, reversing an increase introduced by the previous centre-right government in 2025.

International concern

The broadcasters say this is disingenuous, as the licence fee had been frozen since 2008 with no allowance for inflation.

"We’re talking about funding as if it was an issue of its own, but we also know there is a backlash against public service media that is being weaponised by some of the political forces in Czechia."

Bruttin, like other critics of the Czech proposals, says they risk repeating what happened in neighbouring Slovakia.

There, public broadcasting has been brought under tighter state control by the ultranationalist culture minister Martina Šimkovičová, a former TV presenter who rose to prominence promoting conspiracy theories on YouTube.

Observers also question the timing of the bill, which was fast-tracked through parliament weeks after bruising senate and local election defeats for Babiš’s ANO party and his far-right coalition partners.

They say the government needs a win after the electoral setbacks.