Czech TV crisis

The Czech TV crisis occurred at the end of 2000 and lasted until February 2001 as a battle for control of the airwaves, which included jamming and accusations of censorship. One evening during the Christmas holiday, viewers in the Czech Republic noticed television programs were interrupted by Jana Bobošíková, a familiar face at Česká televize and the newly appointed head of the news department, sitting next to Jiří Hodač, a former BBC employee who had been appointed general manager of Czech TV.

During the Czech TV crisis, Czech TV reporters organized an industrial dispute by staging a sit-in and occupying the news studio, and rejected attempts by Bobošíková to fire them. They were supported in their protest by politicians such as the then President Václav Havel and by Czech celebrities, but every time they tried to air their news broadcasts, Jana Bobošíková and Jiří Hodač would interrupt the transmission either with a "technical fault" screen reading: "An unauthorized signal has entered this transmitter. Broadcasting will resume in a few minutes," or with their own news broadcasts featuring Jana Bobošíková and a team she had hired to "replace" the staff members she had sought to terminate; news content from Bratislava was also rebroadcast.

These broadcasts began being referred to as "Bobovize" by the disputing TV reporters and their supporters who opposed the new management. On the other hand, throughout the crisis, Bobošíková's supporters, such as Václav Klaus and the then Czech Prime Minister Miloš Zeman, accused the protesting Czech TV reporters of law infringement and claimed that those reporters who rejected the changes were not so independent after all. Železný also criticized the Czech TV reporters during his show on TV Nova, "Call the Director".

Following the "technical fault" screens and prevention of the news broadcasts by Bobošíková tens of thousands of people to marched in the streets of Prague and other Czech cities and towns, calling for restoration of freedom of the press, demanding an end to what they perceived as censorship at Czech TV. The demonstrations even drew support from the International Federation of Journalists and made world headlines. The demonstrators also demanded Bobošíková's resignation and the dismissal of the allegedly biased general manager Jiří Hodač. Hodač was even briefly hospitalized during the events.

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Wikipedia