Czech press survey.

(From Czech News Agency)

PRAGUE, April 1 (CTK) - The law has increased the fees for public broadcaster Czech Television (CT) and Czech Radio, which will yield several billion crowns for the institutions -- why not? Karel Steigerwald writes in Mlada fronta Dnes.

But it is strange that there are other, at least equally vital and culturally important activities, such as poetry, plastic arts as well as clubs of philosophers and theoretical physics to which no billions will flow.

The television art does have billions, but the Czech film not.

These are peculiar illusions. The public has set aside for television and sports billions from the public coffers, taking into account their alleged importance. But writers, members of philharmonic orchestras, sculptors and scholars are only given a few more thousands of crowns. Judging by the ideas the public is ruled when paying for television, they are certainly much more important than the whole CT programme.

"We should stop stressing the importance of the public service. In the reality, Czech parliament is only paying its games to the people. Like in ancient Rome. It does not really care for what is really vital for the development of national identity," Steigerwald writes.

This is what parliament really says: you can play your pianos, paint and make research, but only for your own money. The parliament mainly supports the arena with dragons and gladiators.