Czech TV and Czech Radio were among the leaders of the anti-Babiš movement that brought the five-party coalition to power, and the government of Petr Fiala now intends to pay them back by raising the monthly user fees. Oligarch newspapers are being punished with a higher VAT rate, while public media are to be rewarded with a sharp rise in their guaranteed annual fee revenue, which is already Kč 5.7bn at ČT and Kč 2.1bn at ČRo. The potentially bigger issue is hidden in this sentence from ČT’s budget: “The obligation to pay a television fee linked to the possession of a television receiver is proving to be unsatisfactory due to technological developments and changes in viewer behavior….” It wants to start charging for mobile phones, tablets and computers too. If companies are required to pay for every device they own, as they are now for TVs and radios, the guaranteed annual budgets of the public media will rise by billions of crowns. That will fund a lot more anti-Babiš journalism.

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