The crowd protested on Sunday afternoon against government plans affecting Czech public television and radio. It was the largest rally so far against the three-party government led by Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Prague on Sunday to defend the independence of public television and radio and oppose the government's plans to change their funding system. The demonstration was organised by the civic organisation Million Moments for Democracy. Its slogan, "Never again 4:36", refers to the time when the government majority pushed through a controversial amendment to the law in the Chamber of Deputies at first reading in mid-October. The vote took place in the early hours of Saturday morning, after the majority cut short the plenary debate, denying more than 60 opposition MPs the opportunity to speak.
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At Letná, Prague's largest square, an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 people took part in the protest against the government's plans and policies, according to media reports on Sunday afternoon.
Protesters who had come from many parts of the country sharply criticised the government's policies and demanded that the coalition party Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), led by Tomio Okamura, the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, withdraw from the government.
While the two public service broadcasters are currently funded by the population through compulsory monthly subscription fees, the government wants to finance them from the state budget in future. The proposal has provoked significant public resistance, as many fear that the government could exert influence over the editorial independence and impartiality of the two broadcasters.
According to publicly available data, this future state subsidy would be much lower than the current licence-fee revenues of public television and radio.
The opposition, the press and a significant part of public opinion also oppose the changes because they fear that state funding of public service media would restrict their freedom.
At the demonstration, student organisations at universities and colleges in the Czech Republic, dozens of Czech theatres, writers, numerous top athletes, churches, healthcare workers and representatives of international journalists' organisations also expressed their support for public television and radio.
Speakers repeatedly stressed at the protest that public service media cannot be the property of politicians, the government or the state, but belong to everyone and must reflect the views of all significant sections of society. They also called for independent and free public media.
In the Czech Republic, every household that owns a television or radio is required to pay a monthly fee of 150 koruna (2,400 forint) for television and 55 koruna (880 forint) for radio. This year, Czech Television's revenue from these fees amounts to 6.73 billion koruna (107.68 billion forint), while Czech Radio receives 2.47 billion koruna (39.52 billion forint).
The Babiš government has announced that it would abolish the household fees and instead fund the two public service broadcasters through the state budget. The Prague demonstration was broadcast live by the public news television channel, the CTK news agency and a few independent media outlets. Radek Vondráček of the strongest governing party, Elégedetlen Polgárok Akciója (ANO), condemned the organisers of the protest and the organisation Million Moments for Democracy in a television debate programme, calling them "an association of professional agitators".
According to police reports, the demonstration proceeded without incident until early evening, and there were no disturbances.