Gov't ready to bounce Czechs
Protests likened to 1989 'Velvet Revolution'
Government-backed media administrators will hold an emergency meeting today to rule on the crisis. And, in a bizarre turnaround, they could back the rebels' pirate broadcasts against the pubcaster's output.
Thousands of people chanting "Freedom" and waving banners have joined protests outside the news studio south of Prague during the last few days.
The backlash began after Czech TV's 3,000 staff members were angered by the Dec. 20 appointment of Jiri Hodac as director general. They fear he will allow allies of former premier Vaclav Klaus to use the station for their own ends.
Staff barricaded themselves in the newsroom and beamed out rival newscasts by satellite, while execs, who control terrestrial transmitters, attempted to block the signals.
Jobs lost
Hodac's news director, Jana Bobosikova, sacked 20 staffers for violating discipline and threatened to use force to clear the newsroom.
"I am ready to let the security and, if necessary, the police, do their duty,'' she told Reuters. The station's security service and the police have so far refused to take action.
"We remain in here. Nothing changes for us,'' one of the protesters, Marek Vitek, told Reuters by telephone. Some staff slept on the premises over the Christmas holidays.
Viewers have been treated to images of silent protesters standing behind newscasters. The service on Czech TV 1 and 2 has been intermittent for five days, culminating in a complete shutdown Wednesday.
The staff rebels have won backing from many public figures, including Ondrej Trojan, producer of Oscar-nommed "Divided We Fall." He told Daily Variety that he compared the events to the country's "Velvet Revolution" of 1989.
In a newspaper interview, award-winning father and son filmmakers Jan and Zdenek Sverak declared solidarity with the rebels and spoke about ending the coalition government of the Social Democrats and Civic Democrats through elections or "some other way."
Almost all Czech filmmakers and journalists have jeopardized their careers by signing a protest document called "2,000 words for the year 2,000" refusing to work for the pubcaster's new management.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
