In recent years, the Czech Republic has seen the largest changes in media ownership since the early 1990s. Most striking was the purchase of one of the largest publishing houses Mafra by the tycoon Andrej Babiš in June 2013, followed by the takeover of the Czech branch of Ringier by other Czech businessmen later that year. The first case in particular instigated immense discussion about the economic and ethical crisis facing Czech journalism since Babiš is also a powerful political figure (currently the Minister of Finance). In response, a significant number of leading, well-known journalists left media owned by big business and launched projects of quality or "slow" journalism which had until that point been merely discussed theoretically. This paper-based on the results of the Czech part of the Worlds of Journalism Study project-addresses the shift in the ways journalists perceive their roles and ethical responsibilities before and after the 2013 ownership changes. We also present the manner in which these changes are reflected in emerging media projects. It seems that those journalists not affected by the ownership change tend to view journalism ethics and the ability of journalism to exert power more seriously than before.
The idea of freedom plays a strong and important role among journalists in countries that have recently moved to democracy. In this article, we explore the relational nature of freedom and put forward an argument for more clarity in defining its meaning. We examine the values and experiences inscribed in journalistic discourses of freedom assuming that the ways of articulating freedom hold a key for understanding journalism practice. The article revises the question of freedom by focusing on the intersection between political and journalistic fields in two countries that moved from a one-party political system to political pluralism: the Czech Republic and Serbia. It seeks to give a perspective on understanding how concepts of freedom and autonomy work in Czech and Serbian journalistic discourse. The Worlds of Journalism Study’s data on journalists’ perception of political influences were used as a starting point, then a case study analysis of significant clashes between journalistic and political fields in recent years in both countries was applied. In 2014, both Czech and Serbian journalists declared that political factors had small influence on their daily work, but the situation has changed. Our case studies of recent developments in Serbia and the Czech Republic, show a striking discrepancy between what journalists perceive and what they know.
How do journalists in two formerly authoritarian countries, the Czech Republic and South Africa, perceive the potential of media owners and other business people to infl uence their work? Multinomial ordinal regression analysis was applied to data collected in the Czech Republic and South Africa for the present 50 country-wide Worlds of Journalism (WoJ) Project. A total of 291 journalists in the Czech Republic and 371 journalists in South Africa were interviewed according to the WoJ protocol. Th ree aspects of media freedom, as perceived by the respondents, a r e discussed, namely the freedom journalists have to select news stories; to emphasize certain news aspects; and to participate in editorial discussion and decision making (news coordination). Th e results suggest that media owners as well as business people curb, but also support, journalists' freedom in dealing with the news. In the Czech Republic, a country in the global North and a former member of the Soviet bloc, the results show the infl uence of media owners and business owners supports the freedom of journalists in selecting their own stories. More infl uence of business people is associated with more freedom of journalists in aspects emphasized in the stories and in the frequency the journalists participate in newsroom coordination. In South Africa, a former white minority-ruled country in the global South, the results suggest that the infl uence of media owners seems to lessen journalists' freedom to select news and to emphasize certain news aspects, and coordination. Moreover, the perceived level of infl uence of business people in South Africa did not statistically signifi cantly relate to all three aspects of journalists' freedom.
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