Berliner Tageblatt - Thousands gather in Prague to protest licence fee plans

The Czech lower house of parliament voted on Saturday to fast-track a bill that would abolish licence fees for public media and replace them with direct allocations from the state budget.

The legislation, backed by the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis and including two far-right parties, must still be passed by the upper house before becoming law.

The plans have drawn criticism from the opposition, which has pledged to challenge them in the constitutional court.

In Prague's Old Town Square, protester Petr Cekal, a 26-year-old architecture student, said politicians "want to restrict press freedom", which he finds "quite alarming".

Milan Kotal, 94, said that "in my lifetime there have already been two state takeovers of our television in Prague: once by the Nazis during the war and then by the Communists until 1989.

"Today the government is allowing itself things we cannot accept," he said.

Under the proposed reform, state television and radio would see their budgets cut by around 15 percent.

The European Broadcasting Union, European Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute are among the organisations that have criticised the plans.

"The very future of the country for the coming decades is at stake. The government is testing how far it can go," protest organisers said in their call to demonstrate.

A larger demonstration is planned in Prague on November 15.

A.Gasser--BTB