Final Word from Thursday, April 23, 2026

Labor unions at Czech TV and Czech Radio went on strike alert yesterday over the coalition's plans to change the funding model of the public stations, and students took to the streets in their support. ČT reporter Jan Moláček of the strike committee said that if a strike is called, it will be noticeable in the broadcasting but won't put the public service at risk. ČT and ČRo have about 4,400 employees, of which only a fraction are known to the public. Of these only a handful of journalists are so contentious as to be frequent targets of those pushing hardest to change the rules of the game. Moláček is one of them. Others are Vladimír Kroc, Martin Řezníček, Tereza Řezníčková, Věra Štechrová, Barbora Tachecí and Daniel Takáč. (Others, such as Barbora Kroužková and Václav Moravec, have already left.) The world isn't what it once was, and the more these faces of ČT and ČRo - and their editors - use their unique platforms to oppose what is happening, the more they can be assured that it will indeed happen. [ Czech Republic Television ]