Czech Radio fulfils its duties as a public service media well and responsibly, proves EBU´s Peer-to-Peer review

Czech Radio underwent this procedure based on the decision by the the Director General René Zavoral last September. Both EBU´s representatives and Europe public radio´s managers were among the peers.

“The evaluation analyses, also known as Peer-to-Peer Review, examined the compliance with fundamental EBU values set as a milestone for public service media performance in 2012 in Strasbourg. These are universality, independence, excellence, diversity, accountability and innovation. The Peer-to-Peer analysis aimed to monitor current situation in the Czech Radio, underline the cases of good practice, where Czech Radio stands as an example for other public service broadcasters, as well as to point out suggestion and specific recommendations in the areas that Czech Radio should focus on in the future in order to strengthen its performance of public service,” stated René Zavoral, Czech Radio´s Director General.

Considering the standard of independence, Czech Radio turned out to be the most trusted audio platform in the Czech Republic when it comes to providing news reporting and current affairs. Its journalists are led by strict internal, editorial rules and guidelines and are demanded to oblige a process of double verification of information in order to provide precise, verifiable and balanced news reporting. Internal managing system restricts any political or other external influences to impact the content of broadcasting. When it comes to the representation of political parties in broadcasting, Czech Radio provides it well balanced.

Universality is not only represented in historical context, Czech Radio being an integral part of Czech culture, but also from the technical point of view. Using wide sphere of content and platforms, Czech Radio aims to reach diverse audience through analogue and digital broadcasting. It is the investment into technologies and compliance of established high standards to achieve quality content, that fulfil third point of the analysis – excellence. Czech Radio offers sound of high quality, wide distribution and reliable transmitting across all platforms.

Diversity regards the content produced by Czech Radio at all levels crosswise all genres and types of media – audio, video, text and others. Discovery of a set that will be appealing to target audience is a current challenge in connection with creation of multimedia content. Some Czech Radio´s platforms managed to develop real interaction with their audience. That way they can address their needs and the audience feels as if the show was made just for them. “The main interest of Czech Radios is its independence, objectivity and diversity of its content. We need to be where our audience is,” quoted Director General René Zavoral.

Being the milestone of Czech Radio´s activities, interaction with the audience is also distributed via ombudsman, who is an interconnecting body between the radio and its listeners. Precisely this type of communication stands for the fifth point of the analysis – responsibility. The one should be slowly moved towards employees in order to strengthen their duties and increase their motivation and creativity.

Innovation is the sixth and last standard of the international Peer-to-Peer analysis. Criterion of this standard is being fulfilled by several innovative groups at various organization levels. Not only do the employees work with formats, content, platforms and distribution, but they also deal with diverse ways of mutual communication with audience, which is built on trust and supported by Czech Radio´s brand or the brand of individual stations.

Nevertheless, there are still areas that deserve improvement. According to the peers, Czech Radio should focus on promotion of its distinction from other (commercial) media organization, which may be an aid in the upcoming debate on licence fees. It should also focus on effective and clear communication with the public, specifically when it comes to the communication about its mission, vision and values as a public media service. Furthermore, Czech Radio should be able to explain what the contribution of these values to Czech society is and what other services Czech Radio offers to its listeners.

At the same time, there are areas which Czech Radio should focus on more. For example, to publicly promote what distinguishes it from other media organizations and consequently prepare the ground for a public debate on increasing the license fees. It should also communicate effectively about its mission, vision and values it brings to Czech society and to expand knowledge about existing and potential audiences, promote collaboration, talents and innovations, and master strong leadership skills within the organization. “This dedicated professional-standard analysis conducted by peers for peers at Czech Radio has shown us that they are strongly committed to public service values. Whilst maintaining high standards, they understand the need to remain adaptive to the audience needs in what continues to be a competitive multimedia environment.” added Jean Philip de Tender, EBU's media director
Czech Television, Finish public service broadcaster YLE, RTBF or Irish RTÉ are among the public service media which underwent the analysis in the past.

More information in Czech language can be found here.

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