Czech PM’s Media Plans Fall Victim to Russia’s Invasion and Internal Enemies
Riding a wave of liberal democratic enthusiasm on their way to defeating populist billionaire and media mogul Andrej Babis in the October 2021 election, Petr Fiala and his future coalition partners pledged to boost the Czech Republic’s quality media and fight fake news.
Yet after a year of frustration, Michal Klima, the man appointed to lead the media charge, was fired in February and his post of media commissioner, which Fiala created shortly after taking office in November 2021, was also binned.
Now, the remnants of Klima’s remit have been handed to Tomas Pojar, who in January became the latest beneficiary of Fiala’s job creation schemes when he was appointed national security adviser.
The reshuffle has left some insiders and analysts suspecting that the prime minister’s much-trumpeted media crusade – aimed at strengthening the independence of the public broadcaster, fighting disinformation and boosting strategic communications – was throttled by a cabal of powerful enemies.
Born in crisis
Petr Fiala’s government was born in crisis and has been fighting fires ever since.
Cobbles together amid the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the five-party coalition cabinet soon had a vicious war on the doorstep to contend with, followed by an energy crunch and inflation surge.
Looming above the long list of obstacles is the Russian invasion which, Klima argues in an interview with BIRN, murdered the media agenda almost overnight. “The war in Ukraine completely changed the government’s priorities,” he tells BIRN. “It became impossible to speak with anyone. I was totally isolated. There was no room for media matters.”
When Prague then took over the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in July 2022, the distractions only multiplied. However, analysts assert that any resulting capacity restraints could have been overcome if the political will was there.
“I’m not sure the war in Ukraine and stretched government capacity is the main reason for the failing media agenda,” says Vaclav Stetka, Reader in Comparative Political Communication at Loughborough University. “I think it’s more connected to the internal divisions in the government.”
It’s widely believed that the traditional conservative wing of Fiala’s centre-right ODS party was opposed to the media agenda, and this faction’s influence over the government has been growing as the war in Ukraine rages on.
Klima insists that senior members of the government, including the prime minister, remained supportive throughout his year as media commissioner. But he admits that after he put together an action plan of potential solutions to the problems identified by an Interior Ministry report published last summer, many supporters of his mission lost their nerve.
The action plan worked as a red rag to the reactionaries. It suggested strengthening the independence of public media, supporting smaller quality media outlets and NGOs financially, and granting enhanced powers to the authorities to clamp down on fake news and hate speech.
“The old school ODS is not interested in fighting disinformation, and is not keen on strengthening media independence,” states Josef Slerka, a data journalist and head of New Media Studies at Charles University.
Totalitarianism, corruption, communism
Yet it’s not just in the more reactionary corners of the Czech political landscape that the prospect of a strong and independent media rankles.
The handful of oligarchs that over the past 15 years or so have taken ownership over the bulk of Czechia’s major media outlets as a means to win political influence were clearly unsettled.
Proposals including additional government powers for use against disinformation or subsidies worth an annual 100 million koruna (4 million euros) for independent and investigative media – competitors that often shed light on oligarchic affairs – sparked strong resistance.
Klima claims that a vicious campaign was launched against him after the action plan was leaked in December. The action plan was vilified by many major media outlets, with references to the return of totalitarianism, corruption, nepotism and communism.
Many analysts and journalists, however, pointed out that state support for small, independent media outlets is common across Europe. And despite highlighting the need for care whenever government gets involved in media issues, they were hopeful Klima’s action plan would help raise the quality of journalism in the Czech Republic.
But following Klima’s dismissal they expressed deep disappointment. “[Klima] actually managed to get a financial guarantee for a state system of media support,” says one investigative journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Now, due to the opposition of the old school ODS and oligarchs, the idea is dead.”
The push in the national media to discredit the proposals in the public’s mind was key to killing them, analysts argue. It helped convince the governing parties that voters are more perturbed by potential threats to freedom of speech than they are by the waves of disinformation buffeting the country.
With this in mind, the oligarchs struck the final blow. In a scornful open letter put out by the Union of Publishers, which is dominated by the major media outlets, the media commissioner was accused of a chronic failure in his mission and wilfully damaging the media environment.
“It’s hard not to believe that letter was linked to Klima’s fate,” says Stetka. “He was sacked the next morning.”
Dead or alive
This manipulation of public information bodes ill for any significant progress on shoring up the free press in the Czech Republic, with Fiala’s government – a coalition of five disparate parties ranging from staunch conservative to liberally progressive – wary of the continuing challenge from the populist Babis.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the future of the media agenda, but it’s widely thought to be all but dead.
“Klima’s dismissal means that the topic of media support and most other issues will be completely removed from the government agenda,” states the investigative journalist. “Shoring up the public service media might be an exception, if they manage to push the new legislation through.”
Yet Fiala is struggling to fulfil even that goal, despite it being a central election promise.
Following attempts during the previous parliament by populists to wrest control of Czech Television and Czech Radio, the incoming Fiala government promised to refine the selection process for their executive bodies. But the opposition is fighting the amendment.
The bill will likely be forced through eventually, says Stetka, but he warns that for as long as the government refuses to raise the licence fee to solve the chronic underfunding of the public broadcasters, they’ll remain on a tight leash anyway.
“The issue is dead in the water I’m afraid. There’s not even a debate, just the financial suffocation of the public service media to keep them in check,” he laments.
The fight against disinformation is another element that looks set to be pared back. Pojar will take up the issue, but plans to deal with it solely from a national security perspective, meaning he will focus only on disinformation stemming from external actors, essentially Russia and China.
While that’s evidently important, it omits efforts to confront fake news and hate speech on the domestic front. This suggests that the kind of disinformation which so affected the political landscape during the recent presidential election or the pandemic will face no additional scrutiny.
The fate of the strategic communications team that Klima started putting together is also unclear.
While it seems likely it will survive in one form or another, a source close to the project says the situation remains fluid even almost two months since Pojar took over, with little clarity on how things might move forward amid a tense atmosphere.
The national security advisor did not respond to a request for comment on his plans.
Even if it does survive, the five-person team will struggle to match the impact achieved by the likes of the UK, whose heralded strategic communications operation employs hundreds, analysts point out.
Media literacy efforts are also thought likely to survive in some form. That’s a positive given that the Czech Republic ranked a lowly 19th in the Media Literacy Ranking 2022, suggesting a high level of vulnerability to fake news. But it won’t be a cure-all, especially given that such programs tend to miss the target demographically.
“They aim it at the young,” Stetka points out, “but in the Czech Republic it’s the seniors and poorer people who are more likely to be targeted with disinformation and become vassals.”