Czech TV sacks rebel journalists

Demonstrators showed their support for the journalists

The new management of Czech Television (CT) has fired 20 rebellious journalists in its effort to take control of the public broadcaster.

Journalists refused to accept the appointment of Jiri Hodac as director-general last week, claiming he would compromise the station's independence.

Defiant journalists stood in the background during a rebel broadcast

A number of journalists have taken control of CT's Prague headquarters.

The rebels and journalists loyal to Mr Hodac have both been putting out rival news bulletins.

Mr Hodac has already begun trying to make changes to the station.

'Use force'

But his appointment of Jana Bobosikova as news director has already been rejected by journalists.

Ms Bobosikova, who announced the dismissals, warned that she was prepared to use force to clear the rebel-occupied newsroom.

"I am ready to let the security and, if necessary, the police, do their duty," she told Reuters news agency.

But journalists responded that because they did not accept Mr Hodac's appointment, they did not accept that he can dismiss them.

"We remain in here. Nothing changes for us", protester Marek Vitek told Reuters.

Olive branch

The journalists have powerful sympathisers, including Culture Minister Pavel Dostal and well-respected Communist-era dissidents Ludvik Vaculik and Zdenek Sverak.

Several thousand people rallied in the journalists' support in central Prague on Tuesday.

This appointment is a test of how far politicians are capable of going

Czech TV journalists

Czech Radio, which quoted Mr Hodac as promising to maintain the station's independence, said he wanted to meet the journalists.

He said he was prepared to co-operate with the journalists and allow them to retain their jobs as long as they observed the "public service character and independence" of CT.

Indecent haste

The journalists argue that Mr Hodac's connections to the main opposition Civic Democratic Party make him inappropriate for the post.

They described the appointment of Mr Hodac as "a test of how far politicians are capable of going in their pressure methods".

Mr Hodac insists he will guarantee Czech TV's independence

In an appeal broadcast during a TV news programme, the journalists said that the new director had been chosen by the TV's politically-controlled council too quickly.

The controversy has prompted the Czech Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting to launch an investigation to see if the station should be fined for failing to remain impartial.

And the culture minister has called for an extraordinary session of parliament to discuss the problem.

Mr Hodac is the station's fourth director-general in two and a half years.

Privatisation

Both Mr Hodac and Ms Bobosikova are said to have connections to the opposition Civic Democrat party of Vaclav Klaus.

Mr Klaus says the idea of a "public corporation" makes no sense

Mr Klaus, a disciple for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been calling for the privatisation of CT.

But opponents say that privatising CT would be the most serious attempt to weaken public broadcasting since the Velvet Revolution in 1989.

This week was not the first time Czech viewers have seen duelling broadcasts from the same station.

A struggle for control of the country's most popular station, the commercial broadcaster TV Nova, led to rivals broadcasting on the same frequency in 1999.