Journalists who locked themselves into the newsroom of the Czech state television station on Christmas Eve have said they are prepared to continue their strike for at least another week.
The journalists are occupying the Czech Television (CT) newsroom and are calling for removal of the recently-appointed director general, Mr Jiri Hodac.
"We can hold out for another week more and will continue to broadcast on satellite, on cable and on the internet until Mr Hodac resigns," foreign desk reporter Mr Michal Kubal told The Irish Times in the Prague newsroom yesterday.
The journalists say that the appointment of Mr Hodac had compromised the station's editorial independence because of his close links with the rightwing Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Mr Hodac, a 53-year-old former journalist for the BBC's Czech service, has been under pressure to resign since journalists began their action. He was hospitalised yesterday, suffering from suspected exhaustion.
"Mr Hodac's condition is really very serious at the moment," the station news director said yesterday.
Approaching the station yesterday, it sometimes seemed as though Czech state television was running its own variation of Big Brother. Five security guards bar entry to the "container" and permission to enter can only be given by the station's news manager. After a tri-lingual three-way phone conversation, the door is grudgingly unlocked.
Inside is a dark corridor and an odd smell. The smell is coming from a perfectly ordinary-looking radio studio to the left, which, on closer inspection, houses two chemical toilets.
On New Year's Eve, station managers installed the security guards to prevent journalists returning to the newsroom even if they only left to go to the toilet. As in Big Brother, the traffic through the door of the newsroom is one-way, though this reporter managed to get in and out again.
The five chemical toilets are a late Christmas present which supporters hoisted into the newsroom, two for the men in the radio studio and three for the women in the adjoining editing suite. The journalists sleep in sleeping bags on the newsroom floor and guard the door in shifts, cautiously unlocking it to welcome visitors from the outside world. Despite the difficult living conditions, their spirits are high. The table in the centre of the conference room is piled high with supplies, evidence of the tremendous support they are receiving from the public.
"People have been terrific," says Mr Michael Vlk, a news reporter. "They come around every day and give us absolutely everything you can think of, from cheese to caviar." All supplies are raised to the first-floor newsroom in a plastic bucket on a rope.
The "Strike CT" broadcasts five hours of live programming a day. This goes out on satellite, on some cable networks and on the internet. The evening news broadcast is also shown outside the building on a big screen to an assembled audience of over 7,000. Meanwhile, the station management has been broadcasting its own programmes and attempting to block the alternative broadcast.
"This Christmas was one of the best Christmases I've ever had," Mr Michal Kubal, who works on the foreign desk, said. "And it was because we were fighting, defending something good: a free media."
"The issue is no longer just about Czech television, but about politicians trying to get more power than they are due," Mr Kubal said. What began as a standoff on Christmas Eve was by yesterday evening beginning to look like a political crisis.
The Czech Culture Minister, Mr Pavel Dostal, has threatened to bring charges against Mr Hodac for blacking out the terrestrial broadcast of an interview he gave to rebel journalists. Czech President Vaclav Havel says he backs the journalists, adding that Mr Hodac's appointment is "against the spirit of the law". The Prime Minister, Mr Zeman, has called for a "legislative state of emergency" and politicians will meet in full parliamentary session today to consider government proposals to end the strike.