Abstract
The Czech media system followed a liberal-democratic model after 1989. Economisation of the media began in the transformation phase, accompanied by a great influx of western capital. Boulevard media and the mentality of economic survival emerged. The relatively stable media landscape of the post-transformation phase faced enhanced political influence. A fundamental shift began in 2008 when media ownership changed dramatically. Their concentration in a few companies stimulated a public debate on the limits of editorial independence, the role of media and the relationship between owners and journalism.
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Notes
- 1.
For print media, the monitoring of audited and paid circulation is handled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (www.abccr.cz). For broadcast media, the rating and market share is provided by the Association of TV Organizations (www.ato.cz), and for radio by the STEM/MARK and MEDIAN companies (http://www.stemmark.cz/radioprojekt-2-ctvrtleti-2017/). A respected source of information on website traffic is the NetMonitor research project operated by the Association for Internet Development in the Czech Republic (SPIR) and the company Gemius, S.A. (www.netmonitor.cz).
- 2.
This and the following information in the text regarding paid circulation of newspapers and magazines are available at: http://www.abccr.cz/overovana-data/periodicky-tisk.
- 3.
The publisher of the dailies Mladá fronta Dnes and Lidové noviny, the company Mafra a.s., controlled by the food company Agrofert, operates the portal iDnes.cz, linked to Mladá fronta Dnes, and the portal Lidovky.cz, derived from Lidové noviny. The publisher of Hospodářské noviny has created the internet project iHned.cz. A less common Internet strategy was chosen by the publisher of the daily Právo. Together with the largest Czech search engine, Seznam.cz, they built a news-journalistic website, Novinky.cz.
- 4.
On the ownership structure of the media, see Mediaguru (2016). An updated map of media owners.
- 5.
In May 2017, an anonymous audio recording was leaked, where Babiš could apparently be heard instructing a journalist of Mladá Fronta Dnes employed by his media group Mafra to publish stories meant to discredit his political rivals. Babiš did not deny the authenticity. After a government crisis over the conflict of interest and suspicions that Babiš attempted to evade taxes, Babiš agreed to quit his ministerial position.
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Jirák, J., Köpplová, B. (2020). Advantages and Problems of a Liberal Democratic Media Model. Media and Politics in the Czech Republic. In: Lorenz, A., Formánková, H. (eds) Czech Democracy in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40006-4_8
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