Prague, March 14 (CTK) – About 4,000 people met in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Wednesday to demonstrate in support of the freedom of speech and against President Milos Zeman and other politicians’ lash-outs at media, the organisers said.
The rally started with the participants paying respect to Jan Kuciak, a Slovak investigative journalist, who wrote, among others, among suspicious ties between mafia and people around the prime minister, and who was shot dead by an unknown perpetrator in his house together with his girlfriend in late February.
From loudspeakers, the demonstrators could hear recorded statements by Zeman, PM Andrej Babis (ANO) and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) leader Tomio Okamura aimed against journalists.
The protesters made it clear that they dislike politicians attacking independent media, mainly public Czech Television (CT).
“If those in power dare to take independent media away from us, there would be no one to control them for us,” one of the speakers said.
Other speakers said Zeman, Babis and Okamura have been conducting a hate campaign against media.
To show their disagreement, the protesters chanted “shame”, and “away with Babis”. They carried Czech and EU flags, and some also banners. After an hour-long rally, they set off for Prague Castle, the presidential seat where Zeman was hosting a concert for his fans.
The activists previously pointed to the verbal attack Zeman made against CT and businessman Zdenek Bakala’s media in his presidential inauguration speech last week.
This meant the continuation of Zeman’s long-term hateful attack on the journalists who provide independent and pluralist views on politics and society for the public, the activists say.
