Tens of thousands protest in Prague against Czech plan to scrap public broadcasting fees

Tens of thousands gathered on Prague's Old Town Square on Sunday to protest a government plan to abolish the licence fee for public broadcasting and replace it with direct state budget funding — a change critics say would put editorial independence at risk.

The rally was called by the initiative "One Million Moments for Democracy". Demonstrators carried placards reading "Hands off the media" and similar slogans warning that state control of funding would lead to state control of content. EU flags flew alongside Czech national flags in the crowd.

The Czech lower house approved the bill at first reading in an overnight session that ended just after 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, a procedure that drew criticism for its speed. Spontaneous protests had already begun outside parliament on Friday evening, before the vote.

The right-wing populist coalition had announced the plan to fund public broadcasting from the state budget from January 2027 during the summer. If enacted, the public media budget would be cut by more than 15%.

Demonstrator Zdenek Skala said a change of such scale required open public debate, adding that the rushed process appeared designed to prevent one. Another protester, Lenka Bartakova, said she had lived through communist-era media control and did not want to see it return. "Once politicians have that in their hands, nobody knows what happens next," she said.