Czech media unite against threats to journalists and restrictions on information
Forty editors-in-chief from across the Czech media have issued a rare joint appeal to the country’s politicians. They are calling on them to reject violence and threats against journalists and to guarantee equal access to information from public institutions. The declaration follows several disputes over politicians’ treatment of the media, including the exclusion of a Deník N reporter from Foreign Ministry press conferences.
The declaration is entitled Základní hranice, which can be roughly translated as Basic Ground Rules. Its signatories include representatives of public and commercial broadcasters, newspapers, news websites and the Czech News Agency. The editors say politicians and journalists have every right to decide whom they want to speak to, but argue that a different principle applies to public institutions. “Offices and public institutions are not the property of those who run them,” the declaration says, insisting that official information from public bodies must be available to all media without discrimination.
Why editors are drawing the line now
The appeal follows several disputes over the treatment of journalists by Czech politicians. One of the most prominent involved Foreign Minister Petr Macinka of the Motorists party and the daily Deník N. Investigative reporter Zdislava Pokorná was twice denied access to Foreign Ministry press conferences this year. There had already been a dispute between the Motorists and Deník N over its reporting, which resulted in the party filing a criminal complaint against Zdislava Pokorná and one of her editors. When Zdislava Pokorná was excluded again in July, the ministry said Deník N would instead be invited to an event for what it described as “alternative media and conspiracy blogs”. The Foreign Ministry subsequently confirmed that refusing her accreditation had been a political decision taken by Petr Macinka. The Czech Journalists’ Syndicate criticised the move, arguing that public institutions should provide journalists with equal access to information.
Political attacks and threats against journalists
Another major concern raised in the declaration is aggressive rhetoric directed against journalists. The editors call on politicians not to encourage violence, including through their behaviour on social media, and to discourage their supporters from doing so. Media researcher Marína Urbániková of Masaryk University and Charles University says joint declarations by leading Czech editors are not unprecedented, but the breadth of the latest initiative makes it unusual. “As far as I remember, this is one of the broadest, if not the broadest, joint initiatives in terms of the number of signatories,” she said, describing the declaration as significant and far from routine. Marína Urbániková also points to figures from Reporters Without Borders, which recorded 13 political attacks against Czech media during the first six months of the current government.
The danger does not necessarily come from politicians directly advocating violence, Marína Urbániková says. Public attacks on individual reporters can prompt aggressive reactions from supporters. She cites the case of journalist Zuzana Černá, who received online threats after being publicly attacked by MP Jindřich Rajchl of the SPD and PRO. The case illustrates one of the concerns behind the declaration: that rhetoric directed at individual journalists can have consequences beyond the original political criticism.
Government and opposition respond to the appeal
Politicians from both the government and opposition have responded to the editors’ declaration. Education Minister Robert Plaga of ANO said he saw no problem with its demands. “I have to say for myself that I try to behave in this way, so I don't see a problem with it,” Robert Plaga said. Sports Minister and Motorists parliamentary group leader Boris Šťastný said he rejected expressions of violence on social media and in public life and followed the rules of civil communication. However, he also argued that responsibility went both ways and called on the media to be impartial and objective.
The appeal has received stronger backing from opposition parties. TOP 09 leader Matěj Ondřej Havel said no democratically minded politician or public official should have a problem with critical scrutiny by the media. He described freedom of speech and an informed media as one of the fundamental safeguards of freedom in the Czech Republic and urged politicians to respect them. Civic Democratic Party leader Martin Kupka also stressed the media’s watchdog role. “They are an important part of the democratic system and an important check on what those who currently hold power are doing,” Martin Kupka said. He argued that the government should change its rhetoric and that the space for open reporting and independent journalism should be strengthened rather than restricted.
The significance of the declaration also lies in the diversity of its signatories. The forty editors represent audiovisual, print and digital media with widely differing audiences and editorial approaches. They include senior representatives of Czech Radio, Czech Television and the Czech News Agency, alongside privately owned outlets including TV Nova, Blesk, iDNES.cz, Seznam Zprávy, Deník N, Respekt and Radio Impuls. The declaration does not demand that politicians refrain from criticising journalists or give interviews to every media outlet. Instead, its authors define two basic limits: politicians should not encourage violence against journalists, and political power should not determine which journalists receive official information from public institutions.
