Final Word from Thursday, October 23, 2025

What to do with Czech TV and Czech Radio will be one of the most difficult decisions of the budding coalition of ANO, SPD and the Motorists. ANO Chair Andrej Babiš has often criticized them for what he calls the violation of their codes of conduct and lack of impartiality, and he is no doubt tempted to crack down on them. Yet this perceived bias by the public stations has gradually come to be an important part of the media landscape. Scores of alternative projects have arisen or gained ground because of the one-sidedness of Czech TV and Czech Radio. Reining the public media in editorially would increase the competitive pressure on these alternative projects and perhaps even put some of them out of business. A better way to serve the citizens of the country would be to quit treating the public media as "key guardians of democracy" and to define their purpose, scope of activities and budget requirements accordingly. If the management or editorial staff of ČT or ČRo then decided to be pro-government or pro-opposition, it wouldn't really matter, because they would merely be one or two media voices of many in a healthy democracy. [ Czech Republic Television state funding ]