Thousands of people filled Prague's Old Town Square on Sunday to protest against a government plan to scrap licence fees for public television and radio and fund them directly from the state budget, in a dispute that has become a test of press freedom in the Czech Republic.
What happened in Prague
Demonstrators chanted "We've had enough", "This must not be allowed to pass" and "4:36" — a reference to the early-morning hour at which the lower house approved fast-tracking the bill in a rare overnight vote on Saturday, October 24. Organisers said the crowd overflowed the square into nearby streets, and a larger demonstration is planned for November 15.
One protester, 26-year-old architecture student Petr Cekal, said politicians "want to restrict press freedom", which he called alarming. Another, 94-year-old Milan Kotal, said he had already lived through two state takeovers of Czech television, under the Nazis and under the Communists, and added: "Today the government is allowing itself things we cannot accept."
What the government wants to change
Under the plan, backed by the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, which includes two far-right parties, household licence fees for public media would be abolished and replaced with direct allocations from the state budget. The bill must still pass the upper house before becoming law.
The coalition argues that both public broadcasters need to make savings, that funding would be guaranteed by law as a mandatory expenditure, and that the change will have no impact on editorial independence or programme content. Babis wrote on Saturday: "No one wants to interfere with programming or news coverage." Under the proposed reform, state television and radio would see their budgets cut by around 15 percent.
Why critics are alarmed
Critics, including the opposition, the European Broadcasting Union, the European Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute, warn that state-budget funding would give the governing coalition leverage over public broadcasters. The opposition has pledged to challenge the legislation in the constitutional court.
President Petr Pavel, who has often clashed with Babis, said public service media are "among the fundamental pillars of our democracy" and warned: "Hasty steps that cannot be reversed cannot be taken." Critics also compare the move with populist governments in Hungary and Slovakia, a comparison the government rejects.
Trust in the media in the Czech Republic stands at around 30 to 33 percent, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, though public service broadcasters remain the most trusted brands in the country.
Takeaway: Both sides agree the funding model will change how public media is paid for; they disagree entirely on whether that change protects it or puts it under political control — and the upper-house vote and the courts will decide who is right.
Watch: Thousands protest in Prague as the government advances its public media funding overhaul.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Free Malaysia Today, The Manila Times, Al Jazeera.