Joint statement by Czech Radio and Czech Television on the government’s draft bill on public service media
We summarize the main shortcomings of the bill in ten clear points.
The government’s draft bill on public service media does not offer a well-thought-out concept or the modernisation it claims to bring, but rather a host of ambiguities regarding fundamental issues concerning the establishment, operation and status of public service media. It does not provide sufficient guarantees for the genuinely independent existence of Czech Radio and Czech Television. It is internally inconsistent and suffers from fundamental legislative shortcomings. Instead of strengthening the stability and credibility of the public service, it opens the door to legal uncertainty, external pressures and the weakening of editorial autonomy.
We consider the greatest shortcomings of the draft to be, in particular, that:
- it repeals the existing statutory establishment of Czech Radio and Czech Television without convincingly ensuring the continuity of their existence, rights, obligations and internal rules;
- it introduces uncertainty regarding the validity of the Code, the Statutes and the Memoranda, and regarding the status of the media councils;
- it introduces a vague and contradictory definition of public service;
- it abolishes the authorisation to use frequencies allocated for broadcasting and neglects activities in the field of new broadcasting technologies, including on-demand audiovisual services;
- it does not adequately address regional broadcasting and regional studios;
- it marginalises journalism and weakens editorial autonomy by making media councils responsible for content;
- it problematically opens the door to the influence of power and interest groups on broadcast content stemming from funding via donations, grants and earmarked contributions, whilst at the same time ambiguously guaranteeing the very independence of public service media by permitting indirect influence from the state, state bodies or even political entities on both media.
Overall, therefore, this is not merely a change in the method of financing public service media, but an encroachment on the fundamental principles and safeguards of the free, stable and predictable functioning of public service media.
The following ten points outline the most significant legal shortcomings of the draft:
The draft effectively abolishes the existing statutory establishment of Czech Radio and Czech Television.
In doing so, it potentially jeopardises the status and operation of both institutions, as it creates legal uncertainty regarding existing legal relationships. If the legislator’s primary intention is to change the funding of public service media, it is entirely inappropriate to repeal the existing legislation on which these functioning institutions are based.
The continuity of the rights, obligations, assets and liabilities of both institutions is not ensured.
The draft does not address the transfer of legal relationships or the continuity of assets and liabilities; and, unlike the existing laws which establish Czech Television and Czech Radio as legal entities managing their own assets, it uses vague legal terms such as ‘legal entities under public law’ or ‘independent public-law institutions’ and merely declares the existence of ČT and ČRo.
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The independence of public service media is not sufficiently and unambiguously protected.
The definition of independence in the draft is confusing, fragmented and ambiguous. In one place it enshrines independence from direct state influence, in another, it limits this to the executive branch, whilst elsewhere it stipulates that ČRo and ČT shall act impartially and independently.
The draft also overlooks many other undesirable influences on media independence, thereby opening the door to indirect influence on broadcasting from the state, the executive powers, local authorities, politicians and other influential or commercial entities and groups.
There is no clear definition of public service in the field of radio and television broadcasting.
Compared to existing legislation, the draft abolishes the authorisation to use frequencies allocated for broadcasting, and there is a complete absence of provisions regarding activities in the areas of new broadcasting technologies or on-demand audiovisual media services.
Furthermore, the draft neglects certain existing key tasks of public service media, including a minimum number of nationwide programmes, the establishment of regional studios, broadcasting abroad, a network of foreign correspondents, the development of the cultural identity of the Czech Republic’s population, and the production and broadcasting of current affairs programmes or programmes for children and young people.
The future validity of the Codes, Statutes and Memoranda is unclear.
It is not clear from the draft whether these key documents will automatically cease to apply or remain in force. The draft also does not specify by when the new Code and Statute are to be adopted, and makes no mention of the Memorandum at all. At the same time, the draft is contradictory. In one place, it states that the Code is approved by the Czech Radio Council or the Czech Television Council, but elsewhere it states that these councils are to submit the Code to the Chamber of Deputies for approval.
The text of the bill is at odds with fundamental legislative principles.
The draft is inconsistent with the Government’s Legislative Rules, which set out binding principles for the drafting of legislation, in particular because it contains inconsistent and vague terminology and fails to ensure consistency with related legislation, such as the European Media Freedom Act, the Electronic Communications Act, the Radio and Television Broadcasting Act, the Integrated Rescue System Act, and the Crisis Act.
It introduces a prioritisation of public service functions.
Under this draft, public service is reduced to a state-determined hierarchy of activities in which news, education and culture take precedence over other forms of content, whilst entertainment is relegated to a supplementary role. Such a concept is not in line with the role of public service media to “inform, educate and entertain” and is also at odds with European legislation.
Furthermore, the proposal problematically establishes a hierarchy among fundamental public service roles without defining what this prioritisation should look like in practice and how the “priority in the allocation of public funds” should be interpreted. Consequently, it could lead to the side-lining of content important to public service tasks, particularly current affairs and educational programmes.
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It strengthens the role of media councils at the expense of editorial autonomy.
The draft creates scope for pressure on editorial decision-making by transferring the standard responsibility of editors-in-chief for content to media councils, which, however, must not interfere in the production and broadcasting of programmes, as the draft correctly retains from current practice. The direct responsibility of media councils for the content of public service media broadcasts is at odds with another provision of the same Act, according to which neither the Czech Radio Council nor the Czech Television Council, nor their members, may directly interfere with the production and broadcasting of programmes.
The funding arrangements are problematic.
The proposed law creates uncertainty regarding the payment of contributions from the state budget, as there are no provisions specifying the method and timing of payment of the annual contribution from the Czech Republic’s state budget.
The draft also introduces the possibility of funding public service media through donations, grants and contributions from third parties. However, this means that part of their funding could depend, for example, on companies, municipalities, regions or other donors. Such a provision opens up the possibility of donors influencing broadcast content. Public service media should therefore not rely on donations and fundraising, but on stable, transparent and predictable funding.
We also have reservations about the proposed publication of donors’ and contributors’ personal data. We consider the requirement to state not only the first name and surname but also the date of birth of natural persons to be an unreasonable intrusion into privacy, which may discourage people from making contributions. This is primarily at odds with the Personal Data Processing Act and the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of the EU on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.
The obligation to ensure the availability of all Czech Radio broadcasts to people with sensory disabilities.
The Act introduces new obligations that are impracticable in reality. In the case of radio broadcasting, it is impossible in practice to provide subtitling or sign language interpretation for the deaf.
In view of the above, we believe that any changes planned by the government should be addressed through an amendment to existing legislation, rather than through the hasty drafting of an entirely new Media Act, which fundamentally undermines the current functioning system of public service media in the Czech Republic and falls far short of the quality of existing legislation in terms of the requirements for a legal norm regarding its specificity, comprehensibility, clarity, internal consistency, practical applicability and enforceability.