The oft-used image of Klaus and Bobošíková (photo by Štěpán Kotrba)

Much of the propaganda against Hodač and Bobošíková broadcast by the rebels is distinctly questionable. For instance, the rebels have been widely using a picture of Václav Klaus, head of the ODS and Jana Bobošíková from the launch of Klaus's Web page. The implication was that Bobošíková was somehow in the pay of Klaus.

In fact, Václav Klaus launched his Website at the Invex computer trade fair in Brno last October. Bobošíková acted as the moderator of a large conference on modern technology at this trade fair. Klaus happened to launch his site as part of this conference, so it was obvious that as a chairperson of the conference, Bobošíková had to be present.

The widely publicised picture has nothing to do with Bobošíková's political links to Klaus.

Czech Television has, among other things, broadcast a programme about university sociologist Miroslav Mareš, the head of the Council for Czech Television. The programme portrayed him as a sympathiser of neo-Nazi groups.

Czech TV rebels have been repeatedly using lyrical, edited highlights from their newsroom sit-in, featuring archetypal romantic images, broadcast in slow motion and enhanced by emotional music tracks.

Czech TV has also been repeatedly broadcasting a pop-song from a popular movie, entitled Táhněte do háje ("Go to hell") with a picture of Jiří Hodač appearing against the line saying "This dross must be removed."

In the middle of the second week in January, Jana Bobošíková found it increasingly difficult to broadcast her news and she gave up. Hodač himself resigned on 11 January in the afternoon on health reasons. He published this statement:

A week ago, I was taken to the intensive care unit of the Motol hospital in Prague. I had developed acute health problems. This was after many days when, on having been appointed Czech TV's chief executive, I had worked for twenty hours a day without being able to sleep and rest, and after I had become the subject of a disinformation witch-hunt, which in its intensity and in the extent to which it distorted facts has been probably unprecedented in the modern history of this country. On the basis of discussions with my doctor and after assessing the conditions on which my convalescence depends, I have been unfortunately forced to accept the conclusion that I can no longer fulfil the function for which I have been legally appointed. This is why I have decided to resign for health reasons...

I had accepted the post of Czech TV's chief executive, wishing to work according to the best of my ability, even at the cost of utmost personal sacrifice, including the possible cost to my own health. I think I have done this fully.

I was born in this country, and although I have spent most of my life elsewhere–in countries with mature systems of parliamentary democracy–I have always regarded this country as my home. It had never occurred to me that I would eventually become the subject of the most unimaginable and despicable forms of personal attack, disseminated by the media. I admit that, three weeks ago, I would not have believed that something so base was possible in a country that, in the first half of the 20th century, still belonged to the most advanced regions of the world as far as the culture of inter-human relations and the quality of journalism was concerned. Journalism is not just a routine, it is not only a profession: journalism is primarily about humility before truth and about responsibility to others...

I believe in sensible people. My decision is difficult, but I have to accept it after discussing my case with my doctor. I would like to thank all those who have helped me in my work with extraordinary personal sacrifice and I hope that their abilities and moral qualities which they showed in the difficult situation will be eventually appreciated. I would also like to thank all those who gave me strength by their telephone calls, telegrams, letters, e-mails and personal conversations to struggle for something that is worth while. And this indeed was something that was worth while to attempt.

George Hodač

On Friday 12 January, the Lower House of Czech Parliament recalled the current Council for Czech Television (or rather, the remaining six of the originally nine members of the council who had not yet resigned), and temporarily assumed the Council's powers.

Back to square one

The TV rebels had refused to recognise Jiří Hodač as their boss, because they said they did not like the valid Czech TV Law and refused to recognise it. The Law stipulated that the members of the Council for Czech TV are appointed by Parliament according the current balance of political power within the Lower House. This, argued the rebels, showed clearly that the Council was under party political influence.

Of course, nobody in the Czech TV newsroom much minded this until the end of 2000 when the Council decided to appoint a new TV head, paradoxically a non-party person.

But the new man, Hodač, was not connected with the 4Coalition political grouping, the rebels' favoured party and political protector. This is when the TV rebels began shouting about party political influence in the Council and said that they would not henceforth respect the Council, the appointment of the new chief executive and the Law.

Under the pressure of the rebel propaganda broadcasts and public demonstrations, Czech Parliament hastily approved a new version of the Czech TV Law in the small hours of Saturday 13 January.

It had been proposed that the new Law should stipulate that members of the Council for Czech TV should not be appointed only by parliamentary parties, but also by members of the Upper House of Czech Parliament and by various non-political organisations (universities, churches, trade unions) in order to dilute the party political influence on Czech TV. This is, of course, a rather controversial matter, because if the mix of organisations entitled to appoint members of the Council is not carefully balanced, the Council could easily become the victim of various vested interest groups.

The Freedom Union party, a member of the 4Coalition that has openly sided with the rebelling TV journalists for its own vested political reasons from the start, failed on Saturday to persuade Parliament to give some of the powers to appoint members of the TV Council to the Upper House of Czech Parliament.

The new version of the Czech TV Law does include some theoretical powers, given to outside organisations to nominate the Czech TV Council members, but in effect, everything has returned to square one: the Lower House of Czech Parliament has retained power over the appointments to the Council. The Opposition Agreement of the ruling Social Democrats and the supporting Civic democrats thus has retained full control over the appointment of the Czech Television chief executive, in spite of the 4Coalition demonstrations that unsuccessfully demanded a share of decision-making powers in this respect.

Czech Parliament also passed a resolution stating that freedom of speech was never threatened during the whole of this crisis.

So, in effect, the victory of the television rebels has been rather Pyrrhic. Their rebellion has failed in its objective to give their allies, the 4Coalition (Freedom Union) politicians, formal controlling powers over Czech TV, making official the influence which this political grouping has had over Czech TV informally for several years now.

Jiří Hodač has resigned, but he did not recall the people whom he had appointed to Czech TV's top management. So, Jana Bobošíková remains head of news, although she is totally isolated, and nobody will even let her have a single video cassette she might request.

Complete rebel occupation

Czech Television has always been a huge colossus pervaded by the ethos of the Communist past, and major decisions have always been made by informal groups of friends within Czech TV.

This was not clearly visible to people who were not properly acquainted with the state of affairs within Czech Television because there were always individuals in the top positions who survived either because they closely collaborated with the informal decision-making strucures (eg, Ivo Mathé, the chief executive until March 1998), or the top management were puppets who had relinquished their power to the informal decision-makers (eg, Dušan Chmelíček in the final months of his term of office, in the second half of 2000).

Now, Czech Television is without top management, and the hidden internal, decision-making structures which have been running the station for years, have come to the surface.