Prime Minister Andrej Babis has insisted the government does not want to control public media.
“The funding system is changing, no one wants to control public media, no one wants to dictate to them what they should say and do, no one wants to nationalise them,” Babis told the Czech News Agency.
“We are doing this because the system is already outdated and most of Europe is going the same way today and others are joining in,” he added.
Some European countries, including France and Norway, have moved away from the public licence fee model in the last few years.
France removed it in 2022 and its public media, which also carries advertising, is now funded by a portion of the income from VAT.
Norway abolished its license fee in 2020 and moved its public broadcaster’s funding into the national budget.
Reuters said the proposal would amount to a 15% cut in funding for the public broadcasters Czech TV and Czech Radio.
