Television screens tuned to the public airwaves in the Czech Republic remained blank yesterday because of a stand-off between the station's newly appointed director and his staff.
The state broadcasting regulator met, but it was questionable whether it could resolve the dispute between the new state television director, Mr Jiri Hodac, and the staff who oppose his appointment because they say he is politically biased.
Mr Hodac pulled the plug on the station's broadcasts on Wednesday night in the battle for control of airwaves with his rebel staff, who have taken over the newsroom to broadcast their own programmes.
Mr Hodac plans to restart the station only after the regulator decides who has the right to access the airwaves. The protesting personnel have dug in at the newsroom, producing their own news bulletins with significant time devoted to their struggle, and broadcasting them to the small portion of viewers with satellite or cable connections.
Mr Hodac's news director, Ms Jana Bobosikova, said Wednesday's decision to cut all programmes and air a note saying unauthorised people occupy the studios, was a necessary step after the staff began cutting into non-news programmes. They did so after the news director cut them off during regular newscasts and aired their own newscasts from rented studios.
Mr Hodac was appointed by the Czech Television Council, whose members are dominated by nominees of the Civic Democrats (ODS) and the ruling Social Democrats (CSSD). The two parties have a power-sharing pact in parliament.
The lower house of parliament, which appoints the council, yesterday scheduled a session on the situation for January 5th.
President Vaclav Havel, an arch-rival of the ODS leader, Mr Vaclav Klaus, has backed the rebels. The Social Democrat leadership has also called on Mr Hodac to resign to create room for negotiations. Thousands of people and many public figures have rallied outside the news studios in the past days to support the rebels.