Final Word from Thursday, March 1, 2018

Jaromír Soukup of TV Barrandov can't by any means be considered an unbiased observer of Czech TV. On the contrary, he's a political and business rival of the main forces behind the public station. This is why an outside body, such as Parliament, the tax office or police, should investigate the allegations he made last night in his "Kauzy" show. Has CEO Petr Dvořák intentionally been depleting the Kč 5.5bn reserve fund as a way to force a hike in the TV tax? Did Dvořák change the internal rules in 2014 to make it possible to sell off ČT's lucrative real estate? Is Dvořák allowing external production companies to borrow ČT's cameras and equipment and then to charge ČT for use of the equipment? Perhaps Soukup truly is part of a conspiracy involving Miloš Zeman and Andrej Babiš to wrest control of the station from the defenders of liberal democracy, as critics say. But does this mean that defending liberal democracy has to be so secretive, nontransparent and expensive? [Czech Republic scandals affairs]