Why do organisers expect hundreds of thousands to defend Czech public media?

Sunday's rally on Letná Plain, above Prague, opposes a government plan to scrap licence fees and fund public media from the state budget, which protesters say gives ministers leverage over newsrooms.

Organisers expect between 400,000 and 600,000 people on Letná, starting at two in the afternoon, and say it could be one of the largest civic protests in Czech history.

Under the plan, broadcasters' budgets would shrink by about 15% in the first year. That cut sits at the centre of the dispute.

Babiš calls the protesters' claims unfounded, and in an op-ed he wrote: “Anyone who talks about 'nationalisation' of public media is deliberately lying.”