Thousands of people took to the streets in Prague to protest the reform of public media funding
Kyiv • UNN
Mass protests took place in Prague, Czech Republic, against changes to media funding; according to protesters, such changes could affect the transparency of media operations.
In the center of Prague, thousands of people took part in a march against planned changes to the public media funding system, which critics say could weaken their independence. Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
The protest took place a day before the planned strike by employees of Czech Television and Czech Radio. Participants in the action opposed the decision of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's government to abolish license fees, which are currently the main source of funding for public broadcasters.
The authorities propose to finance television and radio directly from the state budget, explaining this by the reluctance of the majority of citizens to pay mandatory contributions.
Critics speak of a threat to media independence
Protest organizer Mikuláš Minář from the civic initiative "Million Moments" stated that public media must remain independent from political influence.
The media do not belong to politics
According to estimates by the CTK agency, thousands of people took part in the protest, marching to the building of Czech Television with posters reading "Hands off public media".
As Reuters notes, the proposed changes could lead to a reduction in funding for public broadcasters by approximately 15%. The head of Czech Television warned this week that this could result in the loss of jobs for 300 to 500 employees out of the company's nearly 2,900 workers.
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