The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported this on its website on Thursday. This institution, advocating for the freedom of the press and media, called on Babiš and other representatives of the government coalition to keep their statements about the media within the limits of legitimate criticism. The Czech Prime Minister rejected the claims of the organization based in France, saying that he is not attacking the media, he is only trying to refute manipulations.
“It would be good if they tried to count the number of manipulations and sometimes lies that some journalists write about me, our government and the ANO movement. That number would be huge. I certainly do not attack them, I just defend myself against those manipulations and try to refute them,” Babiš wrote to Novinka on Thursday evening in response to RSF’s criticism.
According to Reporters Without Borders, between December 9 last year, when his government took power, and June 8 this year, the prime minister attacked the Seznam portal, whose Seznam Zprávy website regularly publishes investigative articles about his government’s wrongdoings and suspected conflicts of interest of the current prime minister.
“Zeznam Zprávy is the most lying media, just like Fairpress and Právo. Don’t trust them, not even a greeting,” said Babiš, for example, last week on Sunday in a video on the network. In the same video, the prime minister quoted from the articles of the servers criticized by him.
But Reporters Without Borders blames his indiscriminate attacks for trying to put journalists under pressure.
“Political attacks against private and public media have become one of the main features of Babiš’s government,” said Pavol Szalai, head of RSF’s Prague branch, in a statement. “They expose journalists to pressure and cyberbullying and force them to self-censor, thereby weakening the control function of journalism,” he added. According to him, not only the right of journalists to inform, but also the right of citizens to information is threatened.
According to RSF, all recorded attacks on Czech journalists and media came from members of the government coalition. The organization added that in previous years it also drew attention to pressure on the press by the current Czech opposition parties.
Rajchl immediately in tow
RSF stated that Babiš regularly criticizes the editor-in-chief of the Seznam Zprávy website Robert Čásenský, but also other leading Czech journalists. At the turn of May and June, according to RSF, he unjustifiably accused the members of the board of the Czech National Committee of the International Press Institute (CZ IPI) of manipulation, because they signed a statement condemning his attacks on journalists.
According to RSF, the second highest number of political attacks on the media comes from MP Jindřich Rajchlo (SPD). RSF stated that Zuzana Černá, a journalist from the internet portal PastVina, filed a criminal complaint after Rajchl insulted her and subsequently his supporters threatened her with death on the social network.
The Czech MP himself told Reporters Without Borders that his rhetoric towards journalists is not an attack, but factual criticism caused by hateful or false articles directed at him. He added that after unfavorable reports in the media, he also had to defend himself legally due to death threats.
According to RSF, Rajchl also focused on public media in his criticism. In mid-April, he promised that he would “bring Czech Television under control” because, according to him, it was spreading pure propaganda. The organization reminds that the current government plans to reform the financing of public media, which, according to RSF, is in conflict with Czech and European legislation on the independence of public media.
