When the Watchdog Sleeps: Investigative Journalism in the Chech Republic

Abstract

The so-called 'Velvet Revolution' in Czechoslovakia laid to rest Communist Party control of the mass media and gave birth to expectations for a different relationship between the government and the press. Journalists envisioned that a democratic political system would permit, even require, an independent and objective press which would be free to decide what is newsworthy, to investigate it, and to interpret it. Performing a 'watchdog' role, the press would be able to influence the political process and the government. Political deregulation and changes in the economic system, media technologies, and society itself would further enliven press freedom. But what actually happened ? In this case study we examine journalistic practices in the Czech Republic eight years after the Velvet Revolution. Drawing on numerous interviews with reporters, editors, and analysts, we discuss the pressures on journalists working in Prague in 1997. While Czech journalists cited little overt outside control of content, they did perceive a climate of control brought about by the forces of private ownership and commercial journalism. We conclude that the changes in the Czech press between 1989 and 1997 were more of a restyling than a renewing - transfiguring the facade rather than transforming the substance. While Czech journalism did provide a forum for political debate in the 1990s, journalists perceived they had less influence on the government and society than they thought they would after the Velvet Revolution