Prague, May 11 (CTK) – President Milos Zeman considers Czech Television (CT) a mouthpiece of the right-wing opposition TOP 09 party and he believes that it should be a state institution, not a public corporation, which it is now, he said in reply to a question from a reader of server Parlamentni listy published on Wednesday.
CT’s operation should be covered from the state budget instead of viewers’ licence fees, Zeman said.
CT is the country’s only TV station that is not private-owned.
Zeman has repeatedly criticised it for distorting information.
CT has dismissed being linked to any political party and pointed out that three are no state-directed TV stations in democratic countries.
“I believe that CT should not have the public corporation status, but that of a state institution, that the licence holders should not pay 135 crowns a month for its operation, and that its operation should be covered from the state budget,” Zeman said.
“At present, CT is nothing but a mouthpiece of one political party whose name is TOP 09,” Zeman added.
His opinion is shared by Finance Minister and ANO movement leader Andrej Babis.
Billionaire businessman Babis told journalists that he is for CT to be financed by the state, which would save people money.
The operation of CT and Czech Radio (CRo) costs the licence holders some 7.2 billion crowns a year in a situation where the two institutions’ financing is supervised by their respective councils comprised only of representatives of “mainstream parties,” Babis said.
According to Babis, independent persons should sit on the CT and CRo councils, as is the case in Germany.
Miroslav Kalousek, head of TOP 09, whose former leader Karel Schwarzenberg was Zeman’s main rival in the direct presidential polls in 2013, called Zeman’s comments a total nonsense.
“The lash-outs by the president and a group of people who mind parliamentary democracy have become folklore already. We must not allow the public corporation CT to be nationalised or privatised in order to serve a conglomerate of the state and oligarchs’ interests, Kalousek said.
In reaction to Zeman, CT spokeswoman Alzbeta Plivova said CT provides services to the public, not political parties or individual state representatives.
On the contrary, the financing of CT through licence holders’ fees secures the public media’s highest independence from political parties, Plivova said.
Moreover, the television service cannot be identified with newscasts only. CT is the country’s biggest producer of original feature films, documentaries, educational, sports and other programmes, Plivova said.
Zeman also criticised the CT management.
“Some of my aides tell me that the fundamental flaw of the CT general director is that he actually does not direct CT, but it has been directed by various subordinate clerks,” Zeman said.
In 2014, Zeman said he would no longer take part in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec, CT’s regular discussion programme, because the moderator was telling lies.
Later in 2014, Zeman criticised a blackout during the live broadcast of his speech at Prague Castle on a state holiday. CT said the blackout was caused by a technical defect at Prague Castle, for which CT was not at fault.
Zeman, however, also criticised CT for deleting a part of his recorded speech in which he made unflattering comments on entrepreneur Zdenek Bakala.
Last year, the Presidential Office criticised CT for not having live broadcast a press conference of Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek.
Ovcacek has often lashed out at CT on social networks, challenging the objectivity of its information.
