Workers at Czech Television and Czech Radio staged a one-day strike on Tuesday in protest at a government plan to overhaul how the country’s public broadcasters are funded, a move many fear would threaten their independence.
Under the proposal, advanced by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s governing coalition, the licence fees paid by households and businesses would be scrapped and replaced with direct funding from the state budget. The broadcasters would receive about 15% less money than they do now, a shortfall staff say would lead to layoffs, reduced production and cancelled programmes.
The strike, described by Czech Television’s chief news editor Michal Kubal as unprecedented in Czech public service media, disrupted normal output. The rolling news channel ČT24 ran short bulletins at the top of each hour with archived programming in between, while Czech Radio played music interspersed with a brief message explaining the strike and a minute of silence. Viewers saw an on-screen message saying staff were “doing everything we can to ensure that we can continue to provide public service in its full scope and quality in the future”.
The bill passed its first reading in the Chamber of Deputies in the early hours of 24 October, after a sitting that ran until 4:36am. A 60-day consideration period means the second reading will not take place until January, so the existing fee system remains in place for now and the reform would not take effect at the start of 2027.
Critics, including the European Broadcasting Union and the European Federation of Journalists, argue that funding public media directly from the state budget opens the door to political pressure and jeopardises editorial independence. A joint statement from journalists’ organisations warned that “such a funding model opens the door to political pressure and jeopardises editorial independence”. Supporters of the strike include labour unions, university deans, religious institutions and hundreds of Czech athletes, and students planned marches in Prague and other cities in solidarity.
Babiš, a populist billionaire who has frequently criticised public and mainstream media, has denied that the government seeks control over what the broadcasters air, presenting the change as a way to cut household costs. On 1 November he floated an alternative involving voluntary contributions, with a guaranteed amount channelled outside the state budget, but gave no details of how it would work.
The dispute echoes battles over public broadcasting elsewhere in Central Europe. Critics of the Czech plan have drawn parallels with populist governments in Slovakia under Robert Fico and in Hungary, while the European Broadcasting Union has pointed to the European Media Freedom Act, which requires public-service media funding to be adequate, sustainable and predictable, with safeguards for editorial independence.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Prague’s Old Town Square on 25 October against the plan, with further protests in Brno, Liberec and České Budějovice, and another demonstration in Prague is scheduled for 15 November.
Sources: Associated Press, via Editor and Publisher (https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/czech-public-media-workers-go-on-strike-over-a-government-plan-to-overhaul-their-funding,264320); European Interest (https://www.europeaninterest.eu/czech-public-media-workers-strike-against-government-funding-overhaul-plan/); Broadcast Media Africa (https://news.broadcastmediaafrica.com/2026/11/03/czech-television-and-radio-staff-strike-over-funding-reform-as-public-media-independence-debate-intensifies/).
