Czech Government Plans Public Media Funding Changes, Citing Slovakia as Warning

The Czech government under Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is preparing changes to public media financing, using recent developments in Slovakia as a cautionary example. In 2023, Slovakia's government under Eduard Heger eliminated television and radio license fees, claiming it was merely a technical change to simplify funding by having the public broadcaster RTVS receive money directly from the state budget instead of household payments. However, a year later, the new government of Robert Fico used this funding mechanism to dissolve RTVS entirely and create a new Slovak Television and Radio entity under different leadership. Czech officials are now pointing to Slovakia's experience as evidence of how changes to public media funding structures can lead to government control over broadcasting, with Hungary also being cited as an example of media capture by the state.