Originally, the parents had wanted 1 million Kč from the paper and an apology, but the courts only granted them 200,000 Kč, and no apology. Upon appeal, the verdict came that an apology was sufficient without the money. A third appeal granted the parents only 100,000 Kč, with a published apology.

According to Judge Ludmila Říhová, the apology is more important than the money and acknowledged the argument of the defense that the publication of drastic photos of car accidents serves as a kind of prevention.

The son, 24-year-old Petr Štafek and three of his friends were killed in a car accident in 2006, and Šíp published photos of his burned body on its front page. Štafek's parents found out about the photo from his grandmother, who bought the paper. His mother, Marie Štafková has since developed psychological problems, and says she constantly sees the photo in her mind.

This is the first time that a Czech newspaper has received a monetary fine for publishing "inappropriate" material.

At the first appeals trial, in České Budějovice, the judge reasoned that the reporters were merely doing their jobs in photographing the dead man, and so a fine was not in order. However, the Czech Supreme Court ruled that the publication of the shots was not substantially relevant to the information and ordered a Prague court to reexamine the case.

A new Civic Code which will be presented to the government this fall turns this reasoning on its head. It states that an apology is less important than financial compensation of the victims.