Media amendment bill passed in first reading in Czech parliament; franchise fees to increase

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The alliance said the amendments were aimed at ensuring stability, independence and sustainability of public media financing. However, the opposition is against this and wants to fund these media from the state budget.

The media amendment bill, according to which franchise fees for public media should be increased, was approved in the first reading in the Czech House of Representatives on Friday, TASR correspondent in Prague reports.

Deputies had already started the debate on the concessions on Thursday, discussing it for more than 14 hours. Andrej Babiš, chairman of the ANO movement, spoke to the plenary for more than four hours. “The proposal to increase the franchise fee, which is currently being vigorously pursued by the Fiar government, is nothing more than an attempt to corrupt and tie Czech Television and Czech Radio even closer together, especially before the elections to the House of Representatives next autumn,” Babiš declared.

Culture Minister Martin Baxa said that, on the contrary, the fee keeps public service media away from political interference. House of Representatives Speaker Markta Pekarova Adamova believes that Babiš wants to take the same approach as the Hungarian or Slovak governments. “We will not allow the same thing to happen in Slovakia or Orbán’s Hungary. There, the ruling party de facto abolished the freedom of public service media. Andrej Babiš wants to follow the same path,” she wrote on social networks.

The head of the Ministry of Culture reminded that concessions for television have not increased since 2008, and for radio since 2005. According to Karel Havlíček, deputy chairman of the ANO movement and shadow chancellor, this argument is irrelevant. He believes that the role of public media and its new program structure should be addressed first, followed by the budget and finally the financing method.

According to the amendment, the TV fee should increase by 15 kronor to 150 kronor (5.92 euros) from next year, and the radio fee by 10 kronor to 55 kronor (2.17 euros). It should be paid not only by owners of radio and TV receivers, but also by households with devices capable of receiving online broadcasts, such as tablets or smartphones. It also introduces the pricing of the fees if inflation has exceeded 6% since the last changes.

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