Seminars and Conferences


2001
8.11. "Media and Politicians"
MediaReport - Ferdinand Peroutka Society, Ltd. held a conference under the keynote "Media and Politicians" in conjunction with the Czech Section of the Association of European Journalists, Charles University Centre for Media Studies and the Ferdinand Peroutka Foundation. The speakers addressed problems of the relationship between the media and politicians both in Central Europe and throughout the democratic world. The audience response was lively, especially to the introductory speech by the Czech deputy prime minister and the case of the Respekt and Reflex weeklies. In early 2002 MediaReport - Ferdinand Peroutka Society, Ltd. releases a collection of speeches complete with texts by Jeroným Janíček (Radio 1), John Lloyd (The Financial Times), Adam Michnik (Gazeta Wyborcza), Jaroslav Veis (advisor to the Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic) and Tomáš Vrba (NYU).

Speakers on the subject were:

Rt Hon David Curry, British Conservative MP
Hans-Ulrich Jörges, Editor-in-Chief, Die Woche
Jan Kasl, Lord Mayor, City of Prague
Christian Rioux, Foreign Correspondent of "Le Devoir", Canada
Pavel Rychetský, Deputy Prime Minister, Czech Republic
Leonard Steinhorn, Professor, American University, Washington D.C.
Jaroslav Šonka, European Academy, Berlin
Michael White, Political Commentator, The Guardian, UK
Michael Žantovský, Chairman of Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security, Czech Republic

Cordial thanks to the sponsors:

a projekt
Český Telecom
The British Association for Central and Eastern Europe
Embassy of Canada, Prague
Embassy of the United States of America, Prague
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Prague
Embassy of the United Kingdom, Prague

September "Investigative Journalism" - a five-day workshop for journalists
(Participants must be professional journalists and must speak English, applications invited till mid-August)

28 February "The End of National Media?"
The Ferdinand Peroutka Foundation held a conference on 28 February 2001 under the keynote "The End of National Media?" within the framework of the Media World Society project, organised jointly by the Institute of Mass Communication of the Charles University Faculty of Social Sciences and the firm Philip Morris.

The conference attempted to analyse the development of the media in the context of ongoing change in Central and Eastern Europe, including ownership changes in the media industry, global, regional and national characteristics of the media and the impacts of their foreign owners.



Papers on these topics were presented by

Ernest Skalski, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland,
Petr Robejšek, Director, International Institute for Economic and Politics, Hamburg,
Chris Elliott, The Guardian, UK,
David C. Simonson, journalist, member of U.S. professional organisations