On Our Radar

Czechia, Australia & EU

18 September 2026

On Our Radar this week: Czechia’s international radio service faces being zeroed out of the state budget, One Nation’s press blacklist raises the alarm on media access and accountability in Australia, and public media across the EU remain under pressure despite the European Media Freedom Act.

On Our Radar this week…

PMA is concerned that Radio Prague International (RPI), Czech Radio’s international service, has been left with no allocation at all in the draft 2027 state budget. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs – which funds RPI separately from the licence fee that supports Czech Radio’s domestic services – has included no money for international broadcasting in its draft chapter, though the ministry says funding may still be found before the budget is finalised. This follows Foreign Minister Petr Macinka’s announcement in February that he intended to terminate the ministry’s contract with Czech Radio for international broadcasting, cutting the 2026 grant from 35 million to 26.25 million crowns and stating that the ministry’s contribution would fall to zero from 2027. As PMA has reported in previous editions of OOR, we remain deeply concerned by the broader funding pressure facing Czech public media, including the government’s plan to replace the licence fee with reduced, direct state budget financing for Czech Television and Czech Radio.

RPI’s situation is another version of the same problem, where public service media is left to depend on annual political goodwill rather than secure funding. PMA calls on the Czech government to guarantee RPI’s continued operation and to ensure that any reform of public media financing – foreign or domestic – ensures long term, sustainable and secure funding , and meets the Czech Republic’s obligations under the European Media Freedom Act. Read more via Radio Prague International.

Meanwhile, PMA is troubled by the continued exclusion of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and other independent news media from One Nation press conferences, a pattern that has now stretched across several months and multiple events. This has included the Farrer by-election in May and a Victorian election campaign launch in August. The latest incident came this week, when ABC and Guardian Australia reporters were removed from a One Nation press conference in Melbourne. The ABC and The Guardian have now jointly called on One Nation to reverse the ban, warning it amounts to censorship and an avoidance of public scrutiny. PMA echoes these concerns; the presence of a free press, and independent public service broadcaster able to hold power to account cannot be conditional on favourable coverage. PMA calls on One Nation to end its media blacklist and ensure all accredited media have equal access to its press conferences, and on all sides of Australian politics to defend journalists’ ability to ask questions without fear or favour. Read more via The Guardian.

Finally, PMA echoes the call made by RSF and members of the European Parliament this month for the full and effective implementation of the European Media Freedom Act. At a Brussels conference on 8 September, representatives of public service media and media regulators from Bulgaria, Czechia, Italy, and Slovakia set out how budget cuts, weakened independence guarantees, and political pressure continue to affect public media across the bloc, more than a year after the EMFA came into force. As RSF put it, the EMFA remains more relevant than ever, and sometimes the only recourse, at a time when public media have become the subject of political pressure across Europe. PMA supports this call and continues to urge the European Commission and member states to ensure the EMFA’s protections are applied in practice, not just on paper. Read more via RSF.

PMA Advocacy Team