This Year’s bePROUD Award Goes to Radio Wave. The Jury Appreciates Its Approach to LGBTQ+ Topics

Radio Wave has received the bePROUD Award for its reports and coverage of LGBT+ topics. Among other things, the jury has appreciated reports on transsexuals or the tolerance of sexual minorities. The award is organized by the Platform for Equality, Recognition and Diversity.

According to the organizers, the reporters from Radio Wave deserve the award for their “factual and sensitive approach in their programmes on various topics exploring the LGBT+ life”. One of them is Veronika Ruppert’s interview with actor Jan Cina. “I’m very happy that in Radio Wave there is room for topics like openness and tolerance. Prejudice and stereotypes will hardly change unless you talk about them openly. Thanks for being able to do it!” says Ruppert. The jury was also impressed by Alžběta Medková’s coverage of gender issues and forced sterilizations of the trans people. The award also goes to the head of Radio Wave programme Bára Šichanová and Filip Titlbach, formerly a Radio Wave reporter. They covered the topic mostly in the programme Kvér (kvér is a Czech obsolete slang word for a rifle, but it is also similar to the word queer) and Šichanová continues to explore the topic in her podcast series Šeptem (In a Whisper).

“I’m very glad that the work of Radio Wave has been appreciated and that it is visible. Especially nowadays when the Czech media landscape tends to approach the LGBT+ topics as something sensational and exotic or tries to produce clickbaits,” says Šichanová, commenting on the prize and adding that it is “important to remain sensitive and respectful towards others and contribute to a tolerant society, which, after all, is our duty, being a public-service media”. Titlbach is of a similar opinion. “For me, the prize is a confirmation that my approach to these topics is right and that it does not promote stereotyping or exoticization of the LGBT+ people or clickbite seeking,” says Titlbach, who recently also received the Report Award for his report on homosexuality.