Intense public discussion on future of Czech television

VIENNA, 11 January 2001 - Today at the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, Freimut Duve, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, welcomed the fact that the current dispute on the future of Czech Television had become a subject of intense public discussion within the country.

"It is an important discussion about the administration of the country's public service broadcasting system and about the quality of journalistic independence of the national broadcaster" he said. He stressed that this discussion is in one form or other of interest to all OSCE participating states, in particular those, which had had a long history of direct state control of media. "Political interference with critical and professional journalism is not limited to the post-socialist world", he added.

Since December, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media has been monitoring the developments at Czech Television in line with his mandate. In a letter of 28 December he asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Kavan for his Government's view regarding this matter. Jan Kavan assured Freimut Duve in his reply that the Czech government is fully aware of the importance of independent public television for democracy and that the Czech constitutional bodies will do their best to protect and strengthen this position without interfering in the internal affairs of the Czech TV.

Freimut Duve welcomed the Czech Government's decision to address the legal core of the current problems in Czech TV by changing the law on Czech Television.

For more information contact the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, tel.: +43-1-512 21 45 - 0, fax: +43-1-512 21 45 - 9, e-mail: pm-fom@osce.org