Link to article: https://www.dw.com/en/czech-republic-government-attacks-public-television-and-radio/a-76009348
The new right wing populist prime minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis, wants to take control of the Czech Republic’s largest broadcaster. Once elected Babis formed his coalition government of other far right allies. This move made it easier for him to attack the financial independence of the public broadcaster, mimicking a similar change and control under Fico in Slovakia. Even the cultural minister of Slovakia has come to the Czech Republic to help implement these new reforms to public broadcasting. Following the similar decision in Slovakia, people moved to watching other news and media outlets. Current worries in the Czech Republic of non compliance with EU regulation are being pushed off until the plan is complete. During the control of the previous prime minister more financial freedoms and securities were set up for the Czech public broadcaster. There is no current plan for what they will do once more control is taken of the public broadcaster, but the goal is to have a more controllable media.
This article is important because it highlights movement in Europe to censor and take control of public discourse. This move from the new party in power will likely be hard to reverse, and make state run media even more of a common place. This reinforces negative stereotypes of whoever is not in power. This is also a sign of this characteristic spreading from state to state, as the model Slovakia has influenced this policy. I think all of the actors involved should let go of the media outlet and provide for things people need with their funds, not a propaganda machine in a well off European country.
In class we talked about motivations in conflict and security, this event could be viewed as an internal conflict of interests and ideas. The conflict of interest could be used as this is a political party vying for control of the government and population through media, while also taking control of the material resources an opposing party needs to be successful. This could also be seen as a conflict of ideas because this is one move in a battle over competing political ideologies, both sides working for a bigger slice of the culture and public eye.