Czechia

Czechia changed government after parliamentary elections held on 3 and 4 October 2025. Official results announced on 6 October recorded turnout of 68.95 per cent and 5,621,717 valid votes. ANO won 34.51 per cent and 80 of the 200 seats; the SPOLU coalition of ODS, KDU-ČSL and TOP 09 took 23.36 per cent and 52 seats; STAN 11.23 per cent and 22; the Pirates 8.97 per cent and 18; SPD 7.78 per cent and 15; and Motoristé sobě 6.77 per cent and 13. ANO, SPD and the Motorists together hold 108 seats.

President Petr Pavel appointed Andrej Babiš prime minister on 9 December 2025 and the remaining ministers on 15 December. Oto Klempíř of the Motorists became Minister of Culture. One post was left open: Filip Turek was not on the list submitted to the president, and Pavel then refused to appoint him to the Ministry of the Environment, the only proposed candidate he rejected. Foreign Minister Petr Macinka held the portfolio on an acting basis until Pavel appointed Igor Červený on 23 February 2026.

Pavel had made Babiš’s appointment conditional on a public resolution of his conflict of interest over Agrofert. On 20 February 2026 Babiš placed all Agrofert shares into a private trust, R. S. V. P. TRUST, with Wilfried Reinhard Elbs as administrator and Věra Výtvarová as protector, stating that he would have no influence over the company and draw no benefit from it while in government.

The dispute over Babiš’s business interests continued after the February transfer. In September 2026 the European Commission suspended for six months the payment deadline for rural-development claims declared in the second quarter, totalling EUR 3,175,886, concerning Agrofert and affiliated entities, and stated that the trust arrangements were not sufficient to resolve the conflict of interest, citing that the fund’s potential beneficiaries are Babiš’s descendants and that he can influence a family council composed of them. The Commission also required the Czech authorities to certify for future claims that expenditure is not linked to grants made since 9 December 2025 to Agrofert, SynBiol, Hartenberg Holding or other entities owned, controlled by or associated with Babiš. Babiš said he had divested Agrofert; the company said it had not breached subsidy rules. On 1 October the Chamber rejected a second motion of no confidence, which secured 83 of the 101 votes required, with 94 against and 177 deputies voting. The debate ran across three sitting days and about 27.5 hours of net time, and the opposition cited the deficit in the draft budget for the coming year, the prime minister’s unresolved conflict of interest, the government’s treatment of institutions and national security.

Czechia ranked eleventh of 180 in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index with a score of 83.01, with indicator scores of 89.53 on the legal indicator, fourth; 89.31 sociocultural, third; 93.49 safety, sixteenth; 76.25 political, twentieth; and 66.46 economic, seventeenth.

A half-share in one of the largest private publishing groups changed hands during the year. Pavel Tykač’s company Tymeprax took over 50 per cent of the Mafra group, with the handover set for 29 May 2026 and his daughter Veronika Horáková Tykačová joining the supervisory board; the investment group Kaprain, led by Karel Pražák, retains the other half.

State Media Monitor maps three Czech entries: Czech Television, Czech Radio and the Czech News Agency. Czech Television and Czech Radio are classified as provisionally Independent Public (IP). Czech Radio returns to that category at this update, having been classified Independent Public in 2022 and downgraded to Captured Public/State-Managed in the 2023 edition. The Czech News Agency is classified Independent State-Managed (ISM).

Czech Radio’s return to the Independent Public family follows a reassessment of the evidence that had supported its earlier Captured Public/State-Managed classification. The most significant earlier intervention was a 2021 Council resolution challenging the objectivity and balance of ČRo Plus. Other controversies concerned a commissioned documentary podcast that was subsequently published in revised form and a disputed commercial sponsorship announcement. The review found no comparable documented intervention since 2021 and no established sustained editorial line imposed by state authorities. Czech Radio’s statutory licence-fee financing and governance safeguards now support provisional IP status, in line with Czech Television.

All three are established by statute: Czech Television under Act No. 483/1991 Coll., Czech Radio under Act No. 484/1991 Coll. and the Czech News Agency under Act No. 517/1992 Coll. The agency is not a state-owned company. Section 1(2) of its Act provides that it manages its own property, and section 1(3) that the state is not liable for the agency’s obligations and the agency is not liable for the state’s.

Supervisory councils are elected by Parliament in all three cases, by different routes. Act No. 225/2023 Coll. brought the Senate into the process for the two broadcasters from 1 October 2023: the Czech Television Council has 18 members, 12 elected by the Chamber of Deputies and six by the Senate, and the Czech Radio Council has nine, six and three respectively. The Czech News Agency’s seven-member Council is elected by the Chamber of Deputies alone, with no Senate involvement and no civil-society nomination route.

The provisional element in both broadcasters’ classifications rests on those two factors rather than on findings about output. Statutory fee funding is a principal structural ground for the Independent Public classification, and the bill would replace it with an annual allocation set in the state budget at a lower level; enactment would require a fresh assessment of the statutory safeguards, the indexation mechanism and the degree of political discretion over future allocations. The 2026 council elections demonstrate the influence available to a parliamentary majority under the existing nomination mechanisms. On the evidence reviewed for this update, neither factor establishes a sustained editorial line imposed, approved or otherwise controlled by state authorities, and the fee system remains legally in force.

The Czech News Agency’s Independent State-Managed classification reflects its governance rather than its finances. The Council that elects the Director General, and which may remove the holder before the end of a six-year term only by secret ballot with at least five of its seven votes, is elected by one chamber of Parliament with no external nomination route, while the agency manages its own property, carries no state liability and earns its revenue commercially. The appointments made in 2026 demonstrate the political influence possible under that mechanism without establishing editorial control.

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