Tall Juniper at 4:36

Although we are repeating ourselves somewhat, it is necessary to state once again: The situation in Czech cultural policy is very serious. And absurd. Let us name just a few events from recent times: Influencer Jakub Jíra, among other things a promoter of the Clash of the Stars programme, was elected to the Council of Czech Radio for six years – the creator of bizarre content will thus help decide on the running, budget and election of the director of public-service radio. Minister of Culture Oto Klempíř did not award a grant to a project commemorating 17 November. The selection committee that is to decide on the new leadership of the National Gallery and which was personally nominated by the minister has direct ties to the art market, and both professional organisations and academia are absent from it. The Minister of Culture decided to conduct extraordinary financial audits across the sector, especially of members of the Association of Independent Theatres. Subsequently, on the official FB profile, he published posts titled “Anyone who receives grants must also expect an audit. Without exception”, developing a narrative of cronyism and the alleged bias of expert committees. After all, Prime Minister Babiš also likes to use the argument of financial audits in relation to public-service media, claiming on his FB profile that “people have the right to know how their money is being handled”, as if the financing and subsequent accounting were not public. A grant call for literary periodicals was also published, stating that “political news, commentary on current political events, or other political journalism whose predominant subject is not literature is not considered content corresponding to this call”. In simple terms, it will thus not be possible to express an opinion on the political situation without risking repression. There is probably no need to write another dissertation on the interconnectedness of the political and artistic worlds. Not to mention the forthcoming amendment to the Audiovisual Act, which threatens a complete replacement of the board of the State Audiovisual Fund and a reduction of the budget framework by one billion crowns.

And then came Friday, 23 October, when the current government coalition’s proposal to abolish the fees for Czech Television and Czech Radio suddenly began to be debated in the Chamber of Deputies. Civil society was mobilised almost immediately, and shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon people began gathering in Malostranské Square by the Chamber of Deputies. The Veřejnoprávně initiative announced its next steps at an extraordinary press conference, including a strike, and extensive protests are being prepared, most likely to culminate in the celebrations on 17 November. 

I managed to arrive at the square in the early afternoon. I listened as people talked about brutal cuts being prepared, radical programme restrictions and mass layoffs, and voiced concerns that the law might conflict with the European Media Freedom Act. And it was cold. The mood “definitively took a turn” when SPD chairman and chair of the session Tomio Okamura set a fixed end time for the debate at 4:36 in the morning, and this number thus became the new symbol of the ongoing crisis.

On social media, in e-mails to MPs, in the packed Old Town Square on Sunday, 25 October, but also through other planned demonstrations and the strike – in short, by any available means – broad civil society and the cultural community are once again mobilising in an effort, if not to reverse the ongoing destruction of free culture and media in the Czech Republic, then at least to voice their dissent. Self-organisation and collective bargaining are the only tools we have at our disposal at this moment. The mood at Friday’s protest was excellent; I personally stayed until half past three in the morning, and only boarded the tram when slam poetry began on the improvised stage. If not hope, then at least I took away from there the melody of the collectively sung folk song Vysoký jalovec, which captures the mood in Prague’s night-time streets better than the prime minister’s comparison of the demonstration to the attack on the Capitol. 

The author is a literary editor at Revue Prostor.

This text is part of the PERSPECTIVES project – a new brand for independent, constructive and multiperspective journalism. The project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA accept any responsibility for them.