Czechia: RSF condemns plan for “legislative ambush” against public broadcasting

The details of the Czech ruling majority's scheme to completely end the licence fee by January 2027 are still unknown, depriving public broadcasters of their main source of funding with no alternative in sight. However, the ruling parties have already announced an equally vague plan to drastically cut the fee - which guarantees these outlets' independence -by July 2026.

On 23 March, Tomio Okamura, chairman of SPD, a junior coalition party, unexpectedly announced a bill to exempt a quarter of all Czech households and 17,000 businesses from the fee and to abolish its automatic indexation on inflation. Czech Televisionand Czech Radiowarned that the abrupt cuts would lead to a 30% decrease in their revenue, undermining their financial stability and potentially crippling their ability to fulfil their public service remit. Members of the ruling coalition presented the measure as a "transitional step" toward the complete removal of the licence fee before backtracking on 24 March, when they claimed the proposal was not yet finalised.

The hasty reform runs parallel to the preparation of the new funding model applicable as of January 2027. The debate on alternative funding will, however, take place only in Parliament, according to Culture Minister Oto Klempir, who has refused to discuss the issue with any of the public broadcasters for the time being. At an anti-government protest on 21 March, 250,000 people voiced their concern over a political takeover of Czech Televisionand Czech Radio, a worry also expressed by 14 media and journalists' organisations, including RSF, in a declarationpublished on 26 March.

Lessons from Sweden

While the Czech government frequently cites Nordic funding systems as alternative models to the licence fee, it showed no interest in the RSF proposal to discuss them with the Deputy Executive Director of RSF Sweden, Erik Larsson. Neither the Culture Minister nor members of the ruling majority were available to meet him during his visit to Prague on 18 and 19 March. Erik Larsson and Pavol Szalai did, however, meet opposition MPs, including the chairs of the media committees in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Frantisek Talir and David Smoljak. They also discussed the strengths and weaknesses of public media funding in Sweden and other Nordic countries with the Director of Strategy at Czech Radio, Martina Majicek Poliakova, as well as with managers at Czech Television.

Sweden replaced the licence fee with an earmarked tax in 2019, which is collected and allocated exclusively for public broadcasting. The government also commits to eight-year funding plans. Public media outlets are owned by an independent foundation responsible for appointing their supervisory boards, further insulating newsrooms from political influence. However, rising costs linked to new obligations in Europe's deteriorating security environment have placed additional financial strain on Swedish broadcasters.

The rise of foreign propaganda has not discouraged the Czech government from cutting 25% of this year's state funding for Czech Radio's international service, Radio Prague International, and announcing its reduction to zero in 2027. By doing so despite RSF protests, Prime Minister Andrej Babis' ruling majority has taken the first step toward financially weakening the public broadcaster without proper justification or inclusive debate.