The Czech government fast-tracked its public media funding overhaul into parliament on Friday, unexpectedly bringing the bill to its first reading in a plan that would scrap the licence fees households pay for Czech Television and Czech Radio, fund both broadcasters from the state budget instead, and cut their funding by about 15 percent.
The fast-tracking went further than the surprise first reading. In another unusual move, the lower house voted to extend the debate, the first of three required readings, into Saturday in a bid to overcome opposition obstruction. The proposal, led by billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and backed by the far-right SPD, had been flagged previously but was not expected to reach the floor on Friday.
The bill rewrites how Czech public media is paid for. Households currently pay 205 crowns ($9.44) a month in licence fees; under the overhaul that charge disappears and the broadcasters would be financed through the state budget, at a level about 15 percent lower, possibly during next year. Czech Television is the country’s most-watched broadcaster across the main age groups. One fact cuts against the plan’s own logic: the government’s 2027 budget projects a wider deficit and makes no provision for the public media funding the bill would require.
The government states its case in its own words. ANO, the leading party in Babiš’s coalition, pledged before last year’s election to abolish licence fees so households would no longer pay directly for public broadcasting. The proposal submitted to parliament says: “The government is led to this change by a European trend under which ever more European countries depart from the fee-funded principle.” The government has also argued that savings are needed at the broadcasters and that the changes would not affect editorial coverage.
Critics answer that budget funding is exactly the problem. Journalists and media organisations say the proposals have not been subjected to sufficient public debate, lack safeguards against political interference, and would make the broadcasters’ money dependent on the politicians who vote the budget each year. Reporters Without Borders, the International Press Institute and the European Broadcasting Union are among the organisations that have criticised the plan. Zdeněk Hřib, leader of the opposition Pirate Party, likened the government’s behaviour to Hungary under former prime minister Viktor Orbán, whose rule was marked by disputes over media freedom and the rule of law: “We are seeing here that Andrej Babis and his entourage … have embarked on the trajectory of installing an authoritarian regime,” Hřib said in the opening debate in parliament.
The fight is one Americans know. In the United States, President Donald Trump's administration pushed Congress to end taxpayer funding for public broadcasting, arguing that no citizen should be forced to pay for media they believe is biased against them. In 2025 Congress voted to claw back the federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the corporation announced it would wind down. Babiš's overhaul is the Czech form of the same argument: end the compulsory fee, and make the broadcasters live on a budget voted by elected politicians.
The bill still has two further readings to survive. What is already established is the direction and the speed: an election pledge to end the licence fee is moving through parliament on a fast track, the funding cut is written into the proposal at about 15 percent, and the first fight over it is running into the weekend.
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