The Act on Exemptions.
Politicians’ comments and their answers to questions can be both surprising and instructive. However, they likely cannot serve as a tool for understanding the context and the processes that lead to fundamental decisions at the highest levels. Even taking into account the fact that it may not be easy to face journalists’ probing questions, one can reasonably expect at least a display of basic economic literacy. Culture Minister Oto Klempíř was teetering on the edge of maintaining his self-respect as he explained to a persistent journalist outside the Czech Television building how public media would be funded once license fees were abolished. Klempíř first explained that changing the procedure for debating the bill—which had accumulated more than four hundred mostly relevant comments—did not mean sweeping the matter under the rug. He then went on to reveal the government’s strategy, which he described not as an attempt to control public service media, but as something he and his colleagues jokingly call “simplification.” He described the original ambition to merge the law on Czech Television, Czech Radio, and the law on fees into a single comprehensive regulation as excessive. According to Klempíř, the point included in the government’s policy statement—namely, the abolition of license fees—will therefore be fulfilled. A specific question aimed at clarifying the mystery of where the state budget will suddenly find approximately eight billion crowns for public service broadcasting was answered with an original argumentative somersault that apparently illuminates the current government’s overall approach to the Czech Republic’s macroeconomy. Taxes will not be raised; a significant portion of the required amount will come from voluntarily paid fees (from the pockets of those who “adore Czech Television and Radio”—O.K.) and further from a “careful search” for additional sources. Given that Oto Klempíř is a minister in the Czech government and is therefore one of those who decide on structural adjustments, a certain degree of civic vigilance is needed regarding the management of both the revenue and expenditure sides of the state budget. Because if this approach is the government’s legitimate method for maintaining fiscal responsibility, these concerns are justified.