According to the law, at least ten of the fifteen members of the Czech Television Council must vote to dismiss the CEO of Czech Television. After Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Chamber of Deputies, it seems that so many votes will be sought worse to remove the current head of television, Petr Dvořák.
–
The parties that are defending the current management of the television have again managed to block the selection of four members of the Council. After a long debate, members of the democratic opposition and the ruling CSSD took breaks until the morning. This led to the adjournment of the meeting.
–
It turns out that part of the opposition, together with the Social Democrats, is determined to defend the appointment of Dvořák’s opponents, for example, until the October parliamentary elections. Which, after all, is their secret goal.
–
The term of office of the three current members of the CT Council will end at the end of May. Another position has been vacated since March, when the psychologist and priest Jan Maxmilián Kašparů left the Council. This would leave only 11 seats in the Council.
–
Originally, four new councilors were to be decided in April. It nominates the twelve candidates selected by the Electoral Committee. However, the opposition has already postponed the vote.
–
On Wednesday, it seemed at first that councilors would be elected this time. Deputies of the ANO movement, the KSČM and the SPD insisted that it would be possible to vote even at night.
–
This “television coalition” was expected to assert its candidates. The most frequently mentioned were the former media adviser of the YES movement, Daniel Váň, who has been sitting on the CT Council for the past six years, former television playwright Jaroslav Kravek, former police instructor and propagator of the right to bear arms Pavel Černý and economist Radek Žádník. All four are critical of the current Czech Television boss Dvořák.
–
Their election was to be facilitated by a secret election, which part of the opposition tried in vain to break down and instead push through a public election.
–
And it was precisely the method of election that was sometimes tensely debated between the individual parliamentary camps.
–
“Go fuck yourself,” said pirate MP Mikuláš Ferjenčík, for example, when he responded to Aleš Juchelka, an MP for the YES movement, who repeatedly criticized the opposition for obstructing the vote. Ferjenčík also objected to the “orbanization” of the public media.
–
“I have been living for 60 years and I have noticed since kindergarten that people do not behave flatly,” said YES MP Jiří Bláha in one of his speeches, according to which the public vote puts people under pressure as under the communist regime before 1989.
–
Jan Bartošek, the head of the People’s Deputies, made a long speech, focusing again on the criticism of TV councilor Hana Lipovská, the outspoken opponent of Petr Dvořák. Earlier in the meeting, he unsuccessfully suggested that deputies vote on Lipovská’s dismissal.
–
It was Lipovská who embodied the dispute over the current leadership of the Czech Television. An economist who works at the Institute of Freedom and Democracy, former moderator and politician Jana Bobošíková, recently accused Dvořák of conflicts of interest and other transgressions. However, her arguments about breaking the law have not yet been confirmed.
—
