Director General of Czech Radio: We welcome the open letter in support of public service media
Czech Radio has become aware of an open letter calling for support for public service media and for strengthening their independence and financial stability. It should be in the interest of every developed democratic state to have strong and free public service media with predictable and transparent funding. The current governing coalition has included this intention in their programme statement and I firmly believe that they will eventually fulfil it.
I very much welcome this initiative by the non-profit organization Díky, že můžem (Thanks That We Can), I am pleased that society is not indifferent to this issue and that it has decided to stand up for the public service media in this way. Czech Radio as an institution will not officially join this appeal for obvious reasons, because we respect the Czech Radio Act and the Czech Radio Code and do not want to raise any suspicion of a conflict of interest. However, I consider the content of the open letter to be a valuable message to the public that it is not indifferent to the fate of public service media. Czech Radio has been informing, educating and entertaining the citizens of this country for more than a hundred years and has been managing the same radio licence fee for almost twenty years. Its real value has halved due to inflation to approximately CZK 22. If Czech Radio is to continue to provide the same wide-ranging and, in many cases, indispensable services to the public, it must also have something to fund them from.
René Zavoral
Director General