From: antenna@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Horvitz) Newsgroups: rec.radio.noncomm,soc.culture.magyar Subject: Radio Ultra (Czechoslovakia) Keywords: Piracy, media reform Date: 19 Apr 91 23:19:27 GMT Organization: Internews From "Respekt" (Prague), 24 February 1991, page 5. Translated by Petr Marek (editor of "Radio Forum" in Prague), with a bit of help with English phrasing from Robert Horvitz: 92.6 MHz - Radio Ultra, etc. by Martin Weiss The broadcasts of Radio Stalin, the first independent radio station in the Czech Republic, were stopped in November of last year by hit men from Prague's 7th district council. On December 8, Prague city hall decided that that intervention was illegal and the chairman of the misdemeanor department of Prague District 7, Mr. Herzog, was ordered to return the confiscated transmitter immediately. Radio Stalin's lawyers said that Mr. Herzog violated about 20 laws until January 9th, when the transmitter was finally returned. The radio resumed broadcasting on Friday, February 15, with a changed name: Radio Ultra. The director of the PTT ordered that the broadcasting be stopped immediately, which has not yet been done. In an internal circular the director of Czechoslovak Radio threatened to fire any employee who cooperated with Radio Ultra. Why again without a license? "We feel they are only mocking us," said Vladimir Vintr, summarizing the promises, delays and obstructions made by state organs. No wonder. There's been much talk about nongovernment (independent or private) radio and television broadcasting, but without results. While there is still no legal framework for such broadcasts we must be satisfied with Czechoslovak Radio and Television, and with several foreign stations that obtained waivers from the government. The state monopolies are fighting to defend themselves, although they publicly state otherwise. The chief editor of Czechoslovak Radio's foreign correspondents, Richard Seemann, writing under a pseudonym in the "Civic Daily" newspaper, attacked Radio Free Europe. The radio leadership denies he was the author but others confirm it. Petr Uhl, director of the Czechoslovak press agency, CTK, told the French Trotskyite publication, Rouge, he is worried by the idea that Reuter, DPA [the German press agency], or AP might spread their information services in Czechslovakia independent of CTK. In television there is a relatively simple situation. Czechoslovak TV is holding onto OK-3 [the 3rd channel's "Open Window" service] for another year, and there are no channels for competitors. The defense of positions in radio requires a stronger effort. For a long time the federal ministry of posts and telecommunications [the PTT] said there are no frequencies for private broadcasting. Only when the report requested by the federal government was finished by the PTT's radiocommmunication research department was it apparent that there are even more frequencies for regional FM stations than there are applicants. In October last year, CTK received from the federal government a waiver to found a news station in conjunction with Radio France International, and they are supposed to start broadcasting in March. From that we see that when government makes a deal with government, exceptions are possible. Radio Stalin and several other congenial initiatives in the Czech Republic lost their patience on February 15th. Paradoxically, independent radio broadcasting is not illegal. It is outside the law. This is because the communists simply did not conceive such a possibility. In free societies the principle is that what is not prohibited by law is permitted. The private broadcasters do not deny the need for a legal framework. However, someone is more upset by the idea that the government could lose control of the airwaves (Richard Seemann) than by violating the legal right to a free flow of information. Of course there might be old structures hidden behind some of the private stations. The worst that could happen is there might be a radio brother of the [Prague] newspaper "Spigl". I think we have survived more terrible things. Waiting for laws The situation will definitely be solved by three laws. Parliament has not even started with the first one, dealing with the republics' competence in broadcasting. Under current arrangements the republics do not have the right to establish their own television and radio stations, although in fact they already exist. The word competence indicates also the character of the problems involved in preparing the law. While the federal government's proposal allow Czechoslovak Radio and Television to survive, the Slovak National Council's proposal would allow the federation to have only a press agency. Occasional Czech-Slovak broadcasts would have a quite interesting, authentically federal program: they would only disseminate information "dealing with the foreign policy and defense of the Czech and Slovak federation." The creators should perhaps be criticized only for forgetting to include energy policy on the list of allowed topics. The Slovak proposed law confirms the character of what was called a success: a law defining the general competence of the republics [passed in December]. The surgery was successful - the patient died. The second part of the legal trio is a law redefining federal radio and television broadcasting. Several drafts have been prepared. In case this second law is combined with the third law, which should accommodate public radio and television (that is, public service broadcasting not controlled by the government), it could be on schedule in May, according to the estimate of federal parliament deputy Michal Prokop. Slovak deputy prime minister Jan Carnogursky got attention for saying that no licenses for nongovernmental broadcasting would be issued in Slovakia for two years. "It is also possible to judge from other Slovak measures that in fact they seek to decentralize only one step but no further. Instead of Pragocentrism, Bratislavocentrism. That is an example of it how the CDH [Christian Democratic Movement], which calls itself a rightist party in economic and social policy, in fact stands on left principles," comments Michal Prokop. There has been more serious planning for media pluralism in the Czech Republic. The Czech government would like to grant waivers for experimental broadcasting. In December of last year, on the proposal of deputy Ladislav Jakl, the Czech National Council reallocated 100 million crowns from the originally considered subsidy for Czech radio and television, to support the development of public radio and television. Czech government advisor Jan Knezinek explains how the amount would be used: "I don't think that this sum should be utilized for developing private enterprises, which nongovernmental broadcasting undoubtedly is. It should be distributed under a so-called grant system. That means support for specific projects, especially cultural ones. Anybody could apply for those grants, anybody with an interesting project, including even state radio." It is clear that in competing with the subsidies of the monopoly media, this method has advantages. It limits direct state intervention. It increases the number of information sources, and especially it guarantees a more efficient use of money. Those who are accustomed to a regular guaranteed subsidy would not like it too much, of course. Unique institutions On Wednesday, February 13th, the Czech National Council Committee for Science, Education and Culture met to discuss radio and television broadcasting. In the afternoon, the committee heard invited experts: Jiri Kanturek and Jiri Pitterman from Czechoslovak TV, director of Czech Radio Jaroslav Fridrich, and several officials of the television workers union, FITES, among others. The large scale of problems narrowed to one only: how to restore the "stolen" hundred million for Czech Radio and Television. Deputy Helena Nemcova warned against old structures hiding among the private broadcasting applicants, and added, "It seems to me exactly the same as if the health ministry were to eliminate several hospitals from their budget in order to finance private clinics." Deputy Miroslav Klega testified that he is familar with the radio's poor condition from his own long cooperation with them, and he warned that we must not cripple television and radio just now when we are entering hard times. The deputies accepted almost with relief the news that the annual receiver ownership fees will be increased about 100 percent. The most eloquent advocates of state monopolies were their representatives, of course. State Radio Director Jaroslav Fridrich: "Radio is a huge educational institution, actually the biggest university we have. It is the biggest theater, opera and concert stage. We have seven orchestras. I know that may be too many. In Prague we have two of them and a choir of very high standard. They are of course subsidized. But if the user fee is doubled we can live nicely with it, and we can retain all of them." The issue of whether we would like to retain all this was not raised. The majority of deputies cautiously listened to the radio and television directors' deplorable odes about how everything is becoming more expensive. Those directors had foreign examples ready. Director Fridrich: " French radio has an annual budget of over 2 billion francs and it reaches only 22 percent of the listeners in France. But state considers it worthwhile, because it is a cultural state." Truly there are other examples. Bavarian radio survives 70 percent from receiver fees, which are 6 German marks per month from each listener, 11 percent from the sale of programs and 19 percent from advertising. It operates at a surplus: it gives 4 percent of its profit to finance the weaker Bundesradios, 1 percent to the all-German station Deutschlandfunk, and it gives 2 percent for development of private radio stations. "Last year the day-to-day operation of Czechoslovak Radio burdened the state budget by an amount of over half a billion crowns. And what was the profit returned to the state treasury? Two thousand crowns from the receipts of the station cafeteria," says deputy Jakl. None of the deputies asked the directors present the logical question of what economizing measures were made, how many people they had to dismiss. Even though Deputy Nemcova demanded in the Czech National Council's plenary session that the 50 million crowns taken from Czech Radio be accounted for to the last crown, no one expressed concern about the way the state mass media spends hundreds of millions. Like talking to wood Deputy Ladislav Jakl tried with admirable calm to explain to his colleagues that the money was not stolen from state radio and television: "That isn't those institutions' money. That is our money and we should decide how to use it most effectively on the basis of specific criteria of community benefit. We don't want to give money to a certain institution only because it exists and calls itself a cultural institution. We give that money for certain functions. We need to find a mechanism, for example of state-ordered competition, that would allow those functions to be performed under more effective control, in a more qualified way, more efficiently, rapidly, simply, better." But it was like talking to wood. Only deputies Marek Benda and Miroslav Wajsar expressed some doubts, but the chairman, Dr. Moserova, cleverly steered the committee to this decision: the hundred million for which all broadcasters should compete instead will go in quarterly installments to Czech Radio and Czech Television. No wonder that state monopolies have done everything to avoid competition. It is remarkable how easily their desires were accepted by a group of deputies who did not even hesitate to go against the original plan of the whole Czech National Council, and besides that they agreed, with just a wave of hands, to raise taxes, because user fees are not anything else. Voters were represented very badly in this proceeding. The state monopolies, on the other hand, did quite well, and deputies Nemcova and Klega, at least, made no secret that they are protecting the interests of their beloved institutions. Now the money really has been stolen, and those cheated were not represented by anyone. If only the deputies had at least tried to be discreet, as in any decent democracy. Rightwing orthodoxy in information policy is definitely not threatening us. State monopolies are rushing full steam ahead, so instead of Radio Free Europe, there is nothing else for us but to gather our ranks around the existing CZ Television and CZ Radio. "Radio has a great tradition which culminated in 1968 in the days of August. What radio achieved at that moment became the subject of many dissertations in the West" (H Nemcova). He who finds that inadequate can listen on a frequency of 92.6 MHz to Radio Ultra, until some scoundrels confiscate it again. ------ Photo caption: Radio Ultra press conference, from left: Stindl, Hronek, Nemcok, Vintr, Neumann. -- !.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.|.!.| Robert Horvitz 1122-1/2 E St. SE Washington, DC 20003-2232 USA antenna@well.sf.ca.us ...{apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!antenna