Thousands rally in support of media independence in Prague

A rally of hundreds of thousands of activists in support of the independence of Czech television and Czech radio took place in Prague. It was attended by 350 thousand to 450 thousand people, writes sb.by.

According to TASS, the leader of the civic initiative “Million Moments for Democracy” Mikulash Minarzh said that the rally was the largest protest rally in the republic in almost 40 years. Meanwhile, the police, which ensured order, does not provide data on the number of participants in the rally. It took place on the Letensky field near the historical center of Prague.

Participants in the rally, which criticized the government, demanded that the authorities refuse to implement the process of adopting a law providing for changes in the system of financing public law Czech television and Czech radio. The document in the first reading was adopted in Parliament on October 24. It involves transferring them to financing from the state budget and abandoning the practice of collecting concessionary payments from residents of the republic.

In addition, the protesters, supported by cultural figures and the liberal opposition, demanded the resignation of the chairman of the SPD (Freedom and Direct Democracy) party, which is part of the Czech government coalition, Tomio Okamura, from the post of speaker of the chamber of deputies of the republic's parliament. They also urged to deprive the SPD of the portfolio of the Minister of Defense in the current Cabinet.

Representatives of the parties of the government coalition of the Czech Republic characterize, according to Czech media, the rally held in Prague as a purely opposition event, in which no voter of the political forces in power took part. In the Czech Republic, protests against plans to transfer Czech television and radio to state funding have continued in recent weeks. The organizers call the new law an attack on the independence of the public legal media. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has called on the political opposition to stop escalating the situation in society. There is no war for independent media, nationalization of the media is not being prepared.