AEJ together with partnering international media freedom organizations calls on MPs to firmly reject the bill to replace licence fees with decreased funding from the state budget, a major threat to the independence of the country’s public media. The draft law, hastily tabled on Friday, 23 of October 2026, by the ruling majority, runs counter to the European Media Freedom Act, which is binding for all EU states.
Plans to replace the existing licence fee funding model for Czech Television (ČT) and Czech Radio (ČRo) with direct state budget financing from January 2027 will hurt the basics of editorial independence of the public service media.
A quote for the EBU Open Letter the AEJ fully supports: “Public service media nowadays operate in an environment of disinformation campaigns, growing political and social polarisation, declining trust, increasing geopolitical pressures, and the rise of foreign big tech companies. In such circumstances, weakening national independent public service media risks weakening societies”.
The whole text of the Open Letter of the European Broadcasting Union that AEJ is part of the signatories is here:
https://www.ebu.ch/news/2026/06/concerns-over-czech-government-plan-to-abolish-the-licence-fee?trk=public_post_comment-text
Irina Nedeva – VP of EJ
