Debate: Independent media as a guarantor and insurance for democracy

The incoming government wants to cancel the fee for public service media and fundamentally change the system of their financing. Yet their representatives still insist that they want to maintain the independence of the Czech Television and the Czech Radio, so are there grounds for concern about its threat? And can the planned changes affect the work of the Czech Television and the Czech Radio? Public broadcasting is often labeled as one of the pillars of democracy, but what exactly does that mean? What exactly have the countries where public broadcasting has been stripped off its independence lost?