New legislation
The Ministry of Culture has presented a draft law under which Czech Television and Czech Radio would no longer be financed through television and radio fees starting next year. They would receive money directly from the state budget as a separate budget chapter.
According to the proposal presented by Culture Minister Oto Klempíř, Czech Television is to receive CZK 5.74 billion next year and Czech Radio CZK 2.07 billion. In total, the public media would receive approximately CZK 7.8 billion from the budget. Compared to this year’s expected fee income, this would be a lower amount; for Czech Television it would be about CZK 1 billion and for Czech Radio about CZK 400 million. At the same time, the ministry admitted that the specific amounts may still change in further discussions.
From a legal point of view, it is essential that the proposal changes the very model of financing public service media. Instead of direct payment by households and companies, their operation would depend on a statutory contribution from the state budget, which is to be regularly indexed to inflation, but not by more than five per cent. Critics, including the unions of ČT and ČRo and the Veřejnopravně initiative, point in particular to the risk of weakening the financial and institutional independence of the public service media. The proposal is still at the very beginning of the legislative process and its final form will depend on the comment procedure and further political discussion.
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