Thousands of people gathered in Prague’s Old Town Square on Sunday afternoon to protest against plans to abolish television and radio licence fees and transfer funding for Czech Television (ČT) and Czech Radio (ČRo) to the state budget.
The demonstration, titled Hands Off the Media, was organised by the Million Moments for Democracy association.
Around 4,000 people gathered in central Brno on Saturday to show their support for public service media.
In response to developments in the Chamber of Deputies, ČT and ČRo employees have called a full-day strike for Tuesday, November 3.
The opposition has described the proposed changes as a move towards state control of the two public broadcasters and warned that they threaten media independence. It plans to challenge the way the governing coalition pushed the bill through its first reading in the lower house before the Constitutional Court and the European Commission.
President Petr Pavel said the unexpected inclusion of the bill on the agenda and the overnight weekend vote undermined confidence in the government’s good intentions and raised serious doubts about the motives of its proponents.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, by contrast, has accused the opposition of exploiting the issue to escalate tensions in the Czech Republic.