Final Word from Tuesday, July 29, 2003
There's not really any investigative journalism in the CR, a political commentator told us. Political scandals appear only if another politician wants them to, he said. An example is the revelation that Designated Justice Minister Vladimír Papež had visited brothels. The story was prepared in advance, and it forced Papež to give up becoming a minister. Sabina Slonková of MF Dnes, the CR's best-known investigative reporter, also became victim of a media scandal. She quit her job at MFD after the paper withheld for a few days the story about Vladimír Mlynář's trip to the Karlovy Vary film festival (because MFD was a media partner). Some of Slonková's best stories were handed to her on a silver platter by self-interested parties, but she quit because her editor engaged in minor manipulation. Some journalists object less to being controlled by politicians than by their editors.