The Prague Post Online: News: Radio Wave's legality questioned

October 10th, 2008

Endowment Fund Business Listings ONLINE Reservations Classifieds Subscriptions

Real Estate Prague Prague Rentals Prague Apartments Prague Art & Antiques

Radio Wave's legality questioned

Public station employees point to conflict of interest

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 5th, 2007 issue

Public alternative-music station Radio Wave is perhaps too successful for its own good.

With an estimated 50,000 listeners in the coveted 12- to 25-year-old age group, the nonprofit station apparently threatens commercial stations, which base advertising rates on the number of listeners they have.

Top commercial radio stations in Prague command audiences of 50,000–70,000 listeners during peak periods, according to the Web site RadioTV.cz.

At least one council member at Český rozhlas, or Czech Public Radio, has made hostile comments about the legality of Radio Wave since its ratings best some commercial stations.

The criticism comes from council member Dana Jaklová, a member of the Civic Democrats, a former lobbyist for TV Nova and a political reporter for www.ceskamedia.cz, which is owned by media lobbyist Jaroslav Berka.

Česká média monitors foreign papers for news about the Czech Republic and publishes a press review of local newspapers.

Radio Wave employees say Jaklová’s work for a commercial media lobbyist is behind the repeated attacks, which have left some fearing the station’s days are numbered.

Jaklová said she does not want Radio Wave shut down. Rather, she wants to see it taken off its main transmitter or, she said, the content must change to reflect that of a regional station, a move employees say would dismantle what the station has built.

“I don’t think Radio Wave’s programming is a public service,” Jaklová told The Prague Post. In March, she told the weekly Respekt, “The disappearance of Radio Wave wouldn’t disturb me. Programs for the young are provided by commercial stations.”

Jaklová argues that Radio Wave’s broadcasts interfere with some transmissions of regional broadcasts, which she says violates the Czech Public Radio’s charter guaranteeing regional broadcasts are available to listeners everywhere.

Speculation at the station as to why Jaklová is critical of Radio Wave is widespread, according to Czech Public Radio employees who wish to remain anonymous since they are not allowed to talk about this topic to the media.

They say people with vested interests in commercial media should not be on an advisory board for public radio, and question whether Jaklová supports public radio at all.

Jaklová told The Prague Post that she does not see a conflict of interest between her post on the advisory board and her job in commercial media.

She has complained to the parliamentary media committee that “public radio’s presentation of information is endangering democracy,” according to Czech Business Weekly.

Štěpán Kotrba, a former Czech Public Radio council member who left this spring because of what he calls “a certain political intrigue” openly questions Jaklová’s loyalties.

“I think that she does harm to Czech Radio. … She is an employee of a media lobbyist agency. So Dana Jaklová represents interests of the commercial sphere,” he says.

The controversy over Radio Wave began shortly after it debuted in January 2006.

It was conceived as a digital radio station but since not many listeners in the Czech Republic had digital radio receivers, it was placed on an analog tower that already broadcast a central Bohemian regional station.

Putting Radio Wave on this transmitter created interference with a regional station, which then suffered spotty coverage. This, Jaklová contends, is in violation of Czech Public Radio’s charter.

“If Radio Wave wants to broadcast analogically, it must be a regional station, which means it has to have programs adjusted to central Bohemia,” Jaklová said in an Aug. 16 opinion piece in Lidové noviny.

Death sentence?

René Zavoral, marketing and PR director of Czech Public Radio, says ending Radio Wave’s analog broadcast would effectively kill the station.

“Not to be able to broadcast in analog, the station would lose many listeners, and if there are just a few people listening to that particular station, there is no point keeping the station alive,” he says.

A month after Radio Wave’s launch, the national Radio and Television Board fined Czech Public Radio 1 million Kč ($49,383). The station appealed this decision with the city court, which ruled Radio Wave was a legal station.

And, recently, in what appears to be an attempt to get more ammunition, Václav Kasík, general director of Czech Public Radio, asked for a legal opinion from one of the country’s most respected authorities on the law, the Czech Academy of Sciences. It also found Radio Wave operates within the law.

Jaklová dismisses this decision. “The way the analysis was elaborated makes me doubt the professionalism of its authors,” she says.

But Kasík has so far been loath to directly criticize Jaklová or anyone else in the advisory council.

Although the council is meant to be advisory, it has the power to dismiss and appoint the general director.

Currently, the board is split over Radio Wave’s fate. With Jaklová leading the charge, four members say it is illegal — and three of those work for commercial media, Kotrba says. Four support the station. The ninth member, who was elected recently, is currently away on holiday.

— Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com

Be the first to add a comment!

Most e-mailed articles
Klaus takes views on U.S. tour Bohemian center reopens in NYC Preventing panic

Related articles
RFE/RL reporter released in Iraq RFE/RL head is willing to fight Briefs RFE/RL snoopers under scrutiny A new home for RFE/RL

Most visited in Business Listings

The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.