Thousands protest in Prague against public media funding reforms

Demonstrators allege Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his coalition’s projected reforms airs a menace to property freedom.

Several 1000 radical person taken to the streets successful Prague to protestation against plans to alteration the backing strategy for the Czech Republic’s nationalist media, accusing the authorities of stifling property freedom.

On Sunday, protesters demanded the withdrawal of authorities seeking to abolish household licence fees and regenerate them with authorities fund allocations for nationalist vigor and television.

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The Czech little location of parliament approved fast-tracking the measure successful a rare overnight vote connected Saturday aft governing conjugation lawmakers rushed to unfastened the issue, limiting the opposition’s quality to prosecute successful statement earlier the ballot was held.

The bill, projected by the governing conjugation led by billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, which includes 2 far-right parties, indispensable inactive beryllium passed by the precocious location earlier becoming law.

The absorption has pledged to situation the authorities successful the law court. The program would chopped backing for nationalist media by astir 15 percent, perchance arsenic aboriginal arsenic adjacent year.

Czechs protestation against a parliamentary ballot to o.k. nationalist media reforms successful Prague, Czech Republic, connected October 25, 2026 [Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images]

At the protestation successful Prague’s Old Town Square, demonstrators chanted, “We’ve had enough”, “This indispensable not beryllium allowed to pass”, and “4:36”, referencing the aboriginal greeting hr erstwhile the draught was approved by parliament.

Babis has said the program is not an onslaught connected media independency but a substance of backing transparency.

Critics pass the projected alteration would let the governing conjugation to instrumentality power of the media. They comparison it with the actions of populist governments, specified arsenic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Babis and his coalition, whose docket includes reducing enactment for Ukraine arsenic it fights disconnected a Russian invasion, person a grounds of attacks against the media.

Public media staffers announced they would spell connected onslaught connected November 3. They are backed by labour unions, assemblage rectors, churches, planetary media organisations and galore others.

A rally is besides planned astatine Prague’s Letna parkland connected November 15, 2 days earlier the day of the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution that ended much than 40 years of totalitarian government.