Will the Czech TV fee end on 1 January? Senators and the president still get a say.

What happened

The Czech Republic’s governing coalition has advanced changes to the funding of public media, despite criticism that it could weaken broadcaster independence.

In a rare overnight vote on 24 October, the Czech governing coalition sent the public media bill to committees. The bill ends the household fee of 205 crowns, about $9.45, for Czech Television and Czech Radio, and pays the two broadcasters from the state budget instead. Their money would fall by about 15% and stay the same in crowns for several years.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš promised to scrap the fee before he took office last December, and his three-party government brought the bill to parliament on 19 June. On 23 October he wrote that “no nationalisation of media is being prepared“. Opposition parties compare the plan with the changes Viktor Orbán made in Hungary.

Staff at the two broadcasters held a one-day strike in June and have called another for 3 November. In June the directors of the radio and television said the cut would force them to let hundreds of people go. Critics say paying from the budget gives politicians a way to put pressure on the newsrooms.

After the Chamber of Deputies passes the bill, the Senate has 30 days. If the Senate rejects it, the bill still becomes law when 101 of the 200 deputies vote for it again. The president then has 15 days to send it back, and 101 votes overturn that too. The three coalition parties have 108 deputies. A law takes effect only once it is published.

Tento zákon nabývá účinnosti dnem 1. ledna 2027.

Czech Chamber of Deputies, print 231, the government bill: this law takes effect on 1 January 2027

Sources: aljazeera.com

The Pattern

We looked for cases where a government, or the parties in it, asked parliament to end the household fee for public radio and TV and pay for them from the state budget or a tax. We found seven such laws since 1999, in France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland and the Netherlands. In six, the fee ended on the day the government had named.

The Read

Babiš made the promise to voters, and his three parties have 108 of the 200 deputies, more than the 101 needed to overturn both the Senate and the president. Poland’s law in 2009 failed at exactly that step: after the president refused to sign, 217 votes in the Sejm were not enough. In France and the Netherlands, the upper chamber let the law through.

There are reasons for doubt. The bill was still with a committee on 25 October, and there were 65 written requests to speak on it. In five of the six laws that started on time, the final vote came 10 to 123 days before the start, while here the Senate alone can take 30 days and the president 15. The government also says it will ask the European Commission if the new model needs its approval as state aid. Four of the seven laws came from Nordic countries between 2012 and 2019.