arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Kate Connolly in Prague
Thursday January 4, 2001

Tens of thousands of Czechs streamed into Wenceslas Square in the capital, Prague, last night to show their support for the journalists involved in an increasingly bitter newsroom strike at the state-owned Czech Television (CT).
Holding banners and chanting, an estimated 100,000 people - the largest gathering in the square since the Velvet Revolution against communist rule in November 1989 - demanded that the country's political leaders end the standoff between the CT director, Jiri Hodac, and the journalists.

The journalists have been occupying the studios since Christmas Eve. With the open support of President Vaclav Havel, they are demanding the dismissal of Mr Hodac, who has close political links to the main opposition group, the Civic Democratic party.

The party's leader, former prime minister Vaclav Klaus, who is favourite to become president after the elections due next year, intends to privatise the television service, which is seen as a watchdog for democracy.

The journalists regard Mr Hodac's appointment as a threat to their livelihoods and the beginning of the end for the station's editorial independence. Some of their management colleagues have already been removed since his appointment.

"All of us face a danger that ... Czech TV will become an obedient instrument of the people who are in power," they said in a statement.

They accuse Mr Hodac of exercising political bias in his news reporting, purging the editorial department of "undesirables", and dismissing key managers.

In August Mr Hodac resigned as news editor after complaints about his slanted news judgment. Although he was given his new position by a committee appointed by parliament, he denies any political bias.

Politicians at both ends of the political spectrum agree that if the crisis is not ended soon it could increase to the point when early elections will benecessary. But talks between the four main political parties earlier this week ended in deadlock.

In a letter to the strikers, the secretary general of the International Federation of Journalists, Aidan White, called on member organisations in more than 100 countries "to show their support and to declare that they will assist you in your strike". T

"The fight for media freedom and democracy does not take place in one country," he said.

The mood in the newsroom remained defiant yesterday, as reporters insisted they would continue their sit-in until Mr Hodac resigned.

"We won't leave until they send in the tanks," said Adam Komers - alluding to the Spring of 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, crushing a popular uprising against communist rule.

Mr Hodac, a former head of the BBC's Czech Service, has been deserted by most of his correspondents and is failing to fill even half of the news slots.

The journalists are backed by a petition signed by more than 150,000 people calling for "television for the people, not for the parties". Supporters are placing supplies of food, toiletries and clean clothes in a bucket which is pulled up to the studio on a rope by the journalists, who have been camping on the floor in sleeping bags. Mobile toilets have been set up in a sound studio.

Eva Kurnertova, 23, editor of the daily news briefs, said: "Everyone I speak to on my mobile tells me to stick it out here. If we give this room up, we can no longer broadcast the truth and then we will have lost."

In the past week 5,000 to 10,000 supporters - including famous actors, former dissidents and musicians - have rallied each night in freezing conditions outside the station.

"We're here because the public nature of Czech television as the watchdog of democracy is under threat," said Ludek Nesleha, an actor who was a member of the strike committee member in the runup to the Velvet Revolution.

"This isn't like 1989, but it's a warning to the politicians that they should finally start learning to behave themselves."