Open letter from the Director General of Czech Radio to the Chairman of the ANO movement Andrej Babiš

Dear Mr Chairman,

During the discussion of the so-called Great Media Amendment in the Chamber of Deputies, you made a number of statements concerning Czech Radio. Some of them were wrong, untrue or disparaged the activities of Czech Radio management and its employees. I respect and have always respected the right of every person to his or her own opinion. However, as a statutory representative of Czech Radio, I consider it necessary to respond to these statements.

I respect all my fellow citizens, including the sympathisers of your movement, among whom - believe me - are many who listen to and like Czech Radio. That is why I am addressing you an open letter in which I will try to clarify some information.

I believe that your opinion about the work of Czech Radio may stem from your lack of knowledge of radio broadcasting, the scope of activities provided by Czech Radio or the functioning of the public service medium in general. Therefore, I would like to invite you to Czech Radio to get to know how our news editors, our literary and dramatic writers, our documentary makers, our presenters, newsreaders, sound engineers and all the employees of the so-called supporting professions work - both in Prague and in the individual regions.

Before your visit to Czech Radio, however, I would like to set the record straight on at least some of the topics that were part of your speeches during the discussion of the “Great Media Amendment".

First of all, I must state that Czech Radio is certainly not in any kind of decay, as you claim. It is currently in good shape, even though it has had to make do with the same budget for almost 20 years. This is thanks to its responsible and transparent approach to financial management, which is independently audited and subject to many levels of scrutiny by the Czech Radio Council and its Supervisory Commission. The annual reports on the Czech Radio's financial management are approved annually by the Chamber of Deputies as well as the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. In this context, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, since 2012, members of the ANO movement have never voted against the approval of these annual reports and have never disputed the data contained therein. On the contrary, even with the votes of ANO MPs, these reports have always been approved by the Chamber of Deputies over the past more than ten years. Moreover, Czech Radio has long declared its readiness to be audited by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO).

Czech Radio has also saved tens of millions of crowns in recent years thanks to the following measures: it reduced the number of employees in 2018 and 2022 and eliminated a total of 180 jobs. In 2022, it stopped broadcasting on expensive and technologically unviable medium waves. Over the past six years, Czech Radio has reduced the overhead budgets of all divisions by around 20 per cent, i.e. to the bare minimum. Thanks to this, it has not only managed to maintain the scope of its services, but has also expanded them - for example, it has established new digital and regional stations (the number of stations is determined by law and is based on the territorial and administrative organisation of the Czech Republic), the news server iRozhlas.cz and the audio portal mujRozhlas.

Czech Radio services are not oversized, but are set up to provide a service for all groups of the population - regardless of their age, social or national classification in society, which undoubtedly includes a large part of the supporters of your ANO movement. We provide them with information, entertainment, culture and education. And I can assure you that they are interested in our services and appreciate them very much. Whether in everyday life, when we are their trusted and respected guide, or in crisis situations - such as the recent floods - when we are often their only source of information if the electricity and thus the internet goes down.

The variety and diversity of Czech Radio's offer is mandated by law, but it is especially appreciated by listeners. The public service is defined very succinctly in the Act on Czech Radio and the Czech Radio Code, and is specified every year down to the details of individual programmes in the annual reports that the Czech Radio Council, the body through which the public's right to control the activities of the Czech Radio is exercised, submits to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The Act on Czech Radio also defines the scope of the public service to a large extent (e.g. the number of full-screen stations and their coverage, the number of regional stations, the methods of dissemination). It is not the case that the scope of the public service is defined by the media management. The debate on public service is ongoing - it is regularly addressed by MPs, senators and experts at round tables and seminars in the Parliament.

Every media house is made up primarily of people, because people are behind the content of every quality broadcast and no one else can produce it. For this reason, Czech Radio employs so many internal and external staff who produce programmes that no commercial radio station can ever offer its listeners - documentaries, readings, radio plays, hard-hitting journalism and news, educational and music programmes, children and youth programmes, broadcasts of important sporting and cultural events. In addition to producing exclusive and high-quality content, Czech Radio is also a major employer and one of the pillars of the creative industry in the Czech Republic.

The radio license fee is to be increased to CZK 55 per month, i.e. by CZK 10. This amount cannot put any household in economic difficulties. At the same time, selected groups of the population - socially disadvantaged households and people with disabilities - are still exempt from paying the radio fee according to the law. In European countries, the public finances public service media everywhere - only the method differs. The license fee is still the relevant and best way of funding, creating a direct link between the public and the media. Moreover, it does not burden the state budget. In many neighbouring countries in the Central European area with a similar tradition, the state funding you mentioned is an exception. In addition to the Czech Republic, there is a fee in Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, etc. It is also the most stable form of income, which allows you to plan effectively for several years ahead. In countries where the fee is regularly indexed or adjusted, the average increase in fee revenue is 14%. Conversely, where funding is linked to the state budget, such as Denmark, Northern Macedonia, Norway or Romania, there is an average 7% drop in revenue for the media and destabilising year-on-year fluctuations that must (and often are not) compensated by additional revenue from the state budget. Moreover, European guidelines (now EMFA) recommend that public media funding should be transparent, predictable and independent of political influences, which is what the fee does best.

The fee is not legally based on whether or not someone 'watches', but has been linked to the ownership/possession/use of a receiver since the very beginning of media legislation. You often talk about a new media tax and mention having to pay for every mobile phone or tablet. That's not true. You still have to pay for one radio receiver per household. However, that receiver can nowadays be a mobile phone or a tablet, as I am sure you know from your own experience. Just as airplanes once replaced airships, the technology of radio reception and reproduction has changed and it is no longer just analogue or DAB+ radio, but internet-connected devices. And more and more people are listening to Czech Radio programmes on mobile phones or computers. Podcast segmentation research in 2023 showed that the most common way of podcast listening is via mobile apps, used by 58% of respondents. While apps are mainly the domain of younger respondents (reaching 75% in the 15-34 age group), the tendency to listen online via the web, on the other hand, increases with age. More than a fifth of the Czech internet population listens to podcasts at least once a week and, for example, 78% of internet users aged 18-29 use a smartphone to listen to digital content, whether it is music or podcasts. 48% of podcast listeners regularly listen to Czech Radio podcasts.

With regard to the merger of Czech Radio and Czech Television, which you support, I would like to point out that the BBC, the Finnish YLE and the Austrian ŐRF have operated as one medium from the beginning and throughout their history. The separate existence of the Czech Radio and Czech Television has its justification, as in Sweden, France and Poland. Both media are very different in their tradition, history and the way they produce and distribute content. The idea that merging them would lead to financial savings is a fallacy. There would still have to be two operating budgets, two production budgets or double distribution costs. No editor is capable of handling two pieces of content for radio and television at the same time, no editor-in-chief can run the editorial and broadcast departments of a radio and television station in parallel. I consider it disreputable that you are talking about savings in the event of a merger between the Czech Radio and the Czech Television without the relevant data being transparently published and discussed in a responsible professional manner.

I would also like to dispel another myth, often repeated by you, that the Czech public service media have enough money. On the contrary, they have one of the lowest incomes in Europe - and not only in comparison with the developed countries of Western Europe. In Switzerland, for example, which is comparable in population to the Czech Republic, public service media are paid five times more per capita than in the Czech Republic. Compared to other countries associated with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Czech Television and Czech Radio, with revenues of EUR 359 million per year (2022), are far behind Germany (EUR 10 161 million per year), the UK (EUR 8 166 million per year), France (EUR 4 075 million per year) or Austria (EUR 1 031 million per year).

I also find it unacceptable that you repeatedly talk about corrupt agreements between Czech Radio and coalition politicians, which you were allegedly informed about by representatives of commercial radio stations. If they did so, they lied to you and deliberately misled you. The linking of fees to the influence of election broadcasts is absolute nonsense, which is damaging to the whole of Czech Radio. Not only me personally and our management, but also the dozens of people who are involved in the news and election broadcasts. Czech Radio has some of the strictest rules in this respect. That is why none of the parties or movements, including yours, have complained about our election broadcasts in the last ten years. Similarly, neither the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting nor the Council of the Czech Radio has found a single fault or hint of imbalance in Czech Radio's broadcasts, whether it was a parliamentary, presidential or any other election. Of course, we will strive for maximum objectivity and balance this year as well. I hope that you will also contribute to this by accepting invitations to our journalistic and pre-election programmes again after two years.

Czech Radio's broadcasts are balanced and objective in their entirety and respect the Act on Czech Radio and the Czech Radio Code. The relevance of the public service media is evidenced by the number of listeners and viewers. Specifically, Czech Radio broadcasts reach 2,5 million listeners a week. Moreover, Czech Radio and Czech Television top the list of news media most trusted by the public every year. These surveys are published regularly by the Reuters Institute, for example. Public service media are traditionally the most trusted source of information in EBU pan-European surveys. Radio as such is the most trusted media type in Europe according to EBU surveys.

Mr Chairman, I believe that maintaining a free and pluralistic public service media is also in the interests of your movement and its voters. We all live in one country, the foundation of which has always been deep democratic traditions, a sense of understanding, strength and determination to face great challenges and dangers that have threatened its freedom. Czech Radio has always been part of this tradition, shaping the modern history of our country, standing by its people and its listeners. It has always been their companion in good times and has given them comfort and determination in bad times.

I would kindly ask you to carefully consider all the facts I state in my open letter. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate my invitation to visit Czech Radio so that you can see its operation in detail and how it fulfils its public service obligations under the law.

Best Regards,

René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio

Prague, 3 February 2025