The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomes the launch by its Czech National Committee of a new journalist safety platform to document and respond to cases of attacks and threats against media professionals in the Czech Republic.
The innovative platform – Safe Journalism – is the first of its kind in the Czech Republic and was launched at an event in Prague on September 4. It offers a new system for documenting attacks against the journalistic profession and for alerting law enforcement authorities to potential criminal cases.
Journalists can report online threats such as online threats and intimidation, pressure from political or economic actors; legal attacks including SLAPP lawsuits; internal pressure from management or media owners; physical intimidation and attacks and stalking; and invasion of privacy or surveillance, among other issues.
The platform then provides assistance to those threatened because of their work, offers legal, psychological and professional support, and serves as a practical guide to how to confront forms of coercion. Cases documented on the platform which include a criminal element will be reported to police via a special contact point, ensuring greater cooperation with law enforcement authorities.
It is modelled on a similar initiative in Slovakia – bezpecnazurnalistika.sk – which is run by the Ján Kuciak Investigative Center (ICJK), named in memory of the Slovak journalist murdered in 2018. IPI cooperates closely with that platform for monitoring media freedom in Slovakia.
Cases documented and verified on the Czech Safe Journalism platform will be added by IPI to the Mapping Media Freedom (MMF) platform, run by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), which is the biggest public database of individual press freedom violations in Europe.
Serious cases involving attacks and violence against journalists and media workers will also be submitted by IPI to the Council of Europe’s Platform for the safety of journalists, which provides a unique platform for accountability from states to respond to attacks on journalists.
Oliver Money Kyrle, IPI’s Head of European Advocacy, welcomed the establishment of the platform and expressed hope it would both offer a more granular focus on media freedom challenges in the Czech Republic and could be used as an example by other states to establish similar safety mechanisms.
IPI encourages all journalists, media professionals, media organisations and journalist groups in the Czech Republic to make use of the platform moving forward.
The platform launches at an important moment for press freedom in the Czech Republic, as polls ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election in early October indicate the return to power of the ANO party led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, whose previous government’s saw a spike in pressures on media freedom and independent journalism.
Safe Journalism was led by the IPI Czech National Committee with partners including the Bakala Foundation, Tipsport Foundation, Independent Journalism Endowment Fund, Bříza & Trubač Law Firm and AKESO Holding. We have received support from the Association of Online Publishers, OSF Foundation, Czech Publishers Union and the Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic.
- For more information, visit the Safe Journalist platform – bezpecnazurnalistika.cz
- IPI Czech National Committee
- Czech Republic: Ten demands for maintaining media freedom ahead of election
More of IPI’s advocacy and monitoring work on the Czech Republic