By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Czech public television and radio workers launched a one-day strike on Tuesday against a government plan to cut financing and move funding to the state budget, which they call an attempt to hurt the broadcasters' independence and viability.
The strike led to broadcast curbs. Public protests, backed by artists and students, were planned on Tuesday afternoon.
The strike escalates a fight over the future of the broadcasters that a 2025 Reuters Institute survey found were among the country's most followed and most trusted news sources. The government's bill passed a preliminary vote last month and now awaits further debate in parliament.
Czech Television's 24-hour news broadcast showed a darkened newsroom and moderators dressed in black reading, unusually, from a script.
The populist government of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, backed by the far-right SPD and eurosceptic Motorists parties, has frequently accused private and public media of bias. The coalition wants to cancel a 205-crown ($9.43) monthly household broadcasting fee — currently used for funding — in its overhaul.
Opposition parties have compared the proposed changes to reforms in Hungary under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Babis ally who built an array of pro-government media.
"This proposal, if passed, will give the government coalition tools to politically influence the content of both public media," Czech TV reporter Jan Molacek, a member of the strike committee, said.
The government parties introduced the bill unexpectedly on a Friday last month, curbing debate and forcing the preliminary vote before dawn on a Saturday.
CHANGES POSSIBLE IN FURTHER DEBATE
Critics say the funding shift to the budget would remove the relationship of the media with paying viewers, and funding decisions would become open to political pressure.
A 15% financing cut proposed as part of the change would bring television's nominal budget to the level of 2008 and radio's to 2005. The media have called such cuts unbearable.
Babis reiterated on Monday the government was merely meeting a promise to lighten the financial burden on people.
"There is no fight over democracy. Nobody wants to take over the public media or bring them under state control," he said, adding changes to the bill could be made in further debate.
Molacek said a funding change was not impossible, but needed to be based on a thorough debate and backed by legal safeguards against meddling.
($1 = 21.7320 Czech crowns)
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Xevi Fontdegloria)
