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Prague – The Chamber of Deputies will approve controversial changes in the selection of councilors of Czech Television and Czech Radio at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, February 22. The meeting was called today at the initiative of the coalition MPs by the Speaker of the Lower Chamber Markéta Pekarová Adamová (TOP 09), her spokesperson Martin Churavý informed ČTK. The chairman of the KDU-ČSL club, Marek Výborný, replied to a question from ČTK that the coalition called for an extraordinary meeting due to concerns about possible opposition obstructions.
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At the same time, Výborný pointed out that laws can be approved in the third reading only on Wednesdays and Fridays between 09:00 and 14:00. Although the Chamber can set aside another time, such a proposal could be vetoed by the opposition. “Aware of this and aware of the opposition's attitude, we agreed to call an extraordinary meeting, because it will eliminate the possibility to change the program at the beginning,” Výborný said. According to him, if the law could not be approved by 2:00 p.m., the meeting would continue on Friday from 9:00 a.m.
Approval of the government amendment at the regular meeting last week was prevented by the opposition proposing changes to its program for many hours. In the case of extraordinary meetings, such a procedure is not possible, their program cannot be changed or modified. The next regular meeting of the lower house will start on Tuesday, February 21.
The government amendment involves the Senate, which is supposed to fill a third of the seats, in the election of councilors of Czech Television and Czech Radio. The definition of organizations that can submit candidate proposals is to be tightened. Opposition MPs consider the proposed changes to be expedient and blame the government camp for trying to control a pair of public media. Coalition politicians, on the other hand, claim that the aim of the amendment is to strengthen their resilience.
Currently, the councilors of Czech Television and Czech Radio are elected exclusively by the Chamber of Deputies. Newly, according to the draft, in the case of the television board, deputies would select 12 members and senators six. The number of members of the Council of Czech Television would therefore increase by three to 18 compared to the present. The lower chamber would elect six members and the upper chamber three members to the Council of Czech Radio. The amendment does not change the number of members of the radio board.
Candidates could only propose organizations representing cultural, regional, social, trade union, employer, religious, educational, scientific, ecological and national interests with at least a ten-year history, i.e. not newly established, even purposefully, as now.
