The coalition added the bill to Friday, 23 October's agenda, and it cleared its first reading at 4:36 on Saturday, 24 October. The opposition's motions to reject it and to return it to the cabinet both failed.
Households pay 55 crowns a month for radio and 150 crowns for television. The bill replaces these fees with budget funding, and the proposal would cut funding for both broadcasters by about 15 percent.
Opposition deputies said voting began while 65 registered speakers had not reached the lectern. Babiš said public broadcasters spend close to 10 billion crowns a year.
Public media staff will strike for one day on Tuesday, 3 November. A large demonstration is planned in Prague on Sunday, 25 October.
The ANO, SPD and Motorists coalition put the public media bill on the Chamber of Deputies agenda on Friday, 23 October, a step that surprised the opposition and part of the coalition itself. Radim Fiala, chair of the SPD deputies' club, said on Saturday that the decision was taken on Thursday evening and reflected an agreement among the coalition parties, not a concession by Andrej Babiš to the SPD. He rejected opposition claims that the late addition broke arrangements for the sitting. The element of surprise was needed, he said, because the opposition had threatened to block proceedings. Fiala also said the coalition was keeping a promise to scrap the fees after recent measures on energy and building law.
Debate ran into the early hours, and at 4:36 on Saturday, 24 October, deputies voted to send the bill to committees after its first reading. The opposition failed both to reject the government proposal and to return it to the cabinet for reworking. Tomio Okamura, SPD chair and presiding officer of the chamber, said the fixed voting time followed an earlier Constitutional Court ruling, and that he had wanted nine hours of debate, which the court had considered sufficient. Opposition deputies countered that voting began while 65 registered speakers had not reached the lectern, and that only a few registered MPs were able to speak after speaking time was cut. Fiala defended the decision to vote down breaks requested by opposition clubs, saying the chamber had voted on them and they did not pass. He also said the coalition had been careful about the procedure.
“We were careful, because we know that the Senate and the president will send it back and it will go to the Constitutional Court.”
The bill would scrap the household broadcasting fees and replace them with state budget funding for Czech Television and Czech Radio. Households currently pay 55 crowns a month for radio and 150 crowns for television, 205 crowns in total (about $9.45). Babiš said public broadcasters manage close to 10 billion crowns a year and that the Supreme Audit Office should oversee their spending. He described the funding as a mandatory expenditure tied to inflation, which he said would guarantee the broadcasters' independence. The proposal would cut funding for both broadcasters by about 15 percent, while nominal funding stays unchanged for several years. On Facebook late on Friday, Babiš said no nationalisation of media was being prepared. In a video shared on X after the vote, he also urged the opposition to change its tone.
“I call on the opposition to stop lying, scaring people, stirring up hatred and dividing society.”
Data from the article text
Analysts and political scientists quoted by Czech media called the speed of the vote unusual, saying there was no substantive reason for it and no public debate. Klára Smejkal, from the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University and co-author of an analysis of European public service media funding, said she found the lack of public discussion hard to understand.
“It is quite hard for me to understand that there is no public discussion, either with experts or directly with public service media.”
Smejkal also noted that Norway and Denmark have a fairly strong social consensus on public media, while the Czech draft contains no safeguards that would stop the amount from being changed easily. Marína Urbánková, a media scholar at Masaryk University, said the coalition was trying to push the bill through by force, at the cost of parliamentary custom. Political scientist Aleš Michal argued that the vote reflected weakness in Babiš's political judgement and that the political gain would go mainly to the SPD. Opposition parties have compared the changes with reforms under Hungary's former prime minister Viktor Orbán.
Several hundred demonstrators stayed outside the Chamber of Deputies overnight, after a rally in central Prague on Friday. Civic groups plan a large demonstration in Prague on Sunday, 25 October, and a protest in Brno on Saturday. Staff at Czech Television and Czech Radio announced a one-day strike for Tuesday, 3 November. Opposition parties, civic initiatives and media representatives said they would keep fighting the plans. Michal expects protests to grow as the anniversary of the Czech Republic's founding and 17 November approach.
Pollar is free and carries no ads in the text. Its members keep it going.
Support PollarGovernment · Prague and Brno
The bill replaces household broadcasting fees with state budget funding for Czech Television and Czech Radio, after a vote at 4:36 on Saturday, 24 October. Opposition parties and experts question both the speed and the procedure used.
AI text based on reports by Aktuálně.cz, Al Jazeera Online, Deutsche Welle and other publishers. Published .