Prague, June 10 (CTK) – The Czech Culture Ministry plans an amendment to the law on radio and TV broadcasts to prevent the accumulation of media power in individual hands by banning a parallel ownership of a newspaper, a radio and a TV station by a single owner, deputy minister Katerina Kalistova has said.
The amendment would enhance the state’s chance to control the media ownership structure and newly define the system of granting and withdrawing broadcasting licences, Kalistova said at a meeting of media representatives with lawyers and politicians in the Senate.
The step is planned in reaction to developments in the media field, mainly the activities of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Andrej Babis, chairman of the ANO movement who owns the giant food and chemical holding Agrofert.
In the past few years, Babis bought significant Czech media including dailies Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD), Lidove noviny (LN) and Impuls Radio.
The planned amendment, however, cannot change the present situation in media ownership, Kalistova said.
“We cannot expropriate [media] licences,” she said.
Kalistova said the amendment alone cannot solve the problem of the concentration of ownership. Before proposing further changes, the ministry is waiting for a planned new EU directive, which, if passed on the EU level, could be translated into the Czech law within three or four years.
Lawyer Hana Marvanova, from the Freedom to Media group that seeks to prevent the accumulation of media power and the interconnection of media with political power, said the planned amendment is “too soft.”
She and other participants in the Tuesday debate warned that the media owned by business groupings may not report about their owners objectively and may only serve to strengthen their owners’ economic and political influence.
That is why the laws on political parties, elections and mainly on the clash of interest should also be amended accordingly, Marvanova said.
Her view was supported by representatives of the private broadcasters’ association and the Charles University’s Institute of Communication Studies that participates in the ongoing European research of the plurality of media.
Daily Hospodarske noviny’s commentator Jindrich Sidlo, too, said it is necessary to change the law on the clash of interests.
Consensus should be reached on an amendment banning the media ownership by lawmakers and candidates for political posts, and it should be “pushed through [as a step] against Andrej Babis,” Sidlo said.
