![]() | |
![]() 27 February 2017 issue of Respekt | |
Editor | Erik Tabery |
---|---|
Categories | Investigative journalism, politics, economy, science, culture |
Frequency | Weekly |
Publisher | Respekt Media |
First issue | 18 November 1989 |
Country | Czech Republic |
Based in | Prague |
Language | Czech |
Website | respekt |
ISSN | 0862-6545 |
Respekt is a Czech weekly newsmagazine published in Prague, the Czech Republic, reporting on domestic and foreign political and economic issues, as well as on science and culture.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(December 2016) |
Respekt was founded very soon after the fall of Communist party from power in 1989 [1] by a group of samizdat journalists as one of the first independent magazines. It is the successor of Informační servis (Information service), an opposition samizdat paper. [1] Respekt is published weekly and has its headquarters in Prague. [2] [3] The New York Times describes Respekt as "influential." [4]
Several people involved with Respekt became influential in top level politics of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic; among them the first editor-in-chief Jan Ruml who served as the Minister of Interior between 1992 and 1997, Martin Fendrych (official at the Ministry of Interior) and Vladimír Mlynář (several ministerial position).
Editors describe Respekt as "a liberal magazine which stands up for freedom of thought and the need of continuous questioning of its outcomes". [5] The weekly concentrates on investigative journalism (often using information gleaned from police sources) and in-depth articles, and has been expanding to cover ecological activism and alternative culture movements in recent years.
In 2005 Respekt published details about business connection between Prime Minister Stanislav Gross' wife and a brothel owner, starting a scandal leading to downfall of Gross several months later; in 2008 it published an article alleging that Milan Kundera, when a student, denounced to the police a Czech spy for the West. [6] [7]
The circulation of the weekly peaked at over 100,000 copies in the middle of the 1990s. At this time the (loss generating) weekly was bought by Karel Schwarzenberg´s R-Presse. [8] The circulation has been dropping steadily over the time causing Respekt's losses to increase to 7 million Czk in 2003. In 2006 Zdeněk Bakala obtained majority in Respekt and planned to eliminate the loss by making the journal more mainstream. The proposed changes led to fear among both readers and the editors that the unique flavour of the weekly will be destroyed; in September 2006 all editors threatened to leave. [9] Within a week the owners submitted to the pressure, recalled the manager responsible to implement the changes and brought in a new editor-in-chief, Martin M. Šimečka, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily SME . Modification of the visual style and the format was delayed until September 2007.
The circulation in 2006 was around 25,000 copies and the weekly was read by approximately 80,000 people each week. In 2007 the circulation was around 16-17,000 copies. According to a February 2008 survey, it is read by 94,000 people and remains one of the most cited journals and newspapers in the Czech Republic.
Since Respekt regularly reports on its investigations into bribery scandals, criminal activity or government mishandling, legal action is periodically taken against Respekt, often by top level politicians. Most of these cases that have gone to court have been won by the weekly.
The most visible case was the Czech government's 2001 attempt to sue Respekt for libel. Miloš Zeman, the instigator of the case, saw it as a way to "put the journal to its end". [10] The case fizzled away only embarrassing the government.
Respekt used its own distinguished visual style that stayed almost unchanged since 1990. With A3 format (24 or 32 pages) and black & white print it resembled more a daily newspaper than a magazine (most of the magazines in the Czech Republic are smaller and printed on glossy paper with heavy use of color and photos).
Front cover drawings by illustrator Pavel Reisenauer very soon became a symbol of the weekly. After several years the front page drawings switched from black and white to color. Reisenauer also contributed with drawings on the back cover and for the articles. All photos were black and white, their number was intentionally kept down. Advertisements were added at the end of 1991 in limited form, compared to other Czech journals.
The changes planned by the new owner in 2006 (glossy paper, use of color, coverage of day-to-day events or consumer advice) were cancelled at the time (see history above). In September 2007 the format has been changed, color replaced the black & white photos and the advertisement section was expanded. [11] [12]
During the early 2000s all old issues of Respekt have been converted into electronic form and made available online for subscribers in PDF form. An attempt to establish a commercial news-bulletin sent by email failed. In 2006 Respekt was among the first Czech newspapers to provide blogging space for the public on their website.
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), and continued until 21 August 1968, when the Soviet Union and most Warsaw Pact members invaded the country to suppress the reforms.
Milan Kundera was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.
Czech literature can refer to literature written in Czech, in the Czech Republic, or by Czech people.
Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century.
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout, and Ladislav Lis. Spreading the text of the document was considered a political crime by the Czechoslovak government. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of the members of the initiative played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics.
The Freedom Union–Democratic Union was a small pro-European liberal party in the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2011.
Rudé právo was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Blesk is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic. Its name translates as lightning.
Lidové noviny is a daily newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily still in print, and a newspaper of record. It is a national news daily covering political, economic, cultural and scientific affairs, mostly with a centre-right, conservative view. It often hosts commentaries and opinions of prominent personalities from the Czech Republic and from abroad.
Jáchym Topol is a Czech poet, novelist, musician and journalist who became a laureate of the Czech State Award for Literature in October 2017 for his novel Sensitive Man.
Ivan Martin Jirous was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the communist regime. He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead", "loony", or "fool", a nickname given to him by the experimental poet Eugen Brikcius.
Týden is a Czech weekly news magazine which focuses mainly on news and news analysis. It has been in circulation in 1994.
The Czech Republic men's national basketball team represents the Czech Republic in international basketball. The team is controlled by the Czech Basketball Federation (ČBF).
Petr Kellner was a Czech billionaire entrepreneur, the founder and majority shareholder (98.93%) of the PPF Group. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic.
The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague or FAMU is a film school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It is the fifth oldest film school in the world. The teaching language on most courses at FAMU is Czech, but FAMU also runs certain courses in English. The school has repeatedly been included on lists of the best film schools in the world by The Hollywood Reporter.
Reflex is a Czech weekly magazine focusing on political, social and cultural topics. It was founded in 1990 and is currently owned by company Czech News Center. It is one of the Czech Republic's most controversial and widely read social-political magazines; its print circulation of 60,000 copies reaches approximately 270,000 readers. Polls conducted by the Czech Publishers Association in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 placed Reflex first in its category.
Ludvík Kundera was a Czech writer, translator, poet, playwright, editor and literary historian. He was a notable exponent of Czech avant-garde literature and a prolific translator of German authors. In 2007, he received the Medal of Merit for service to the Republic. In 2009, he was awarded the Jaroslav Seifert Award, presented by the Charter 77 Foundation. Kundera was a cousin of Czech-French writer Milan Kundera and nephew of the pianist and musicologist also named Ludvík Kundera.
Martin Milan Šimečka is a Slovak journalist and writer.
Gymnázium třída Kapitána Jaroše is a public gymnasium in Brno, Czech Republic.
Švehla describes the changes and explains that the loss making journal needs to implement them. Quality of articles won't be compromised, says.