Final Word from Thursday, November 8, 2018

The law on radio and television broadcasting requires opinion to be separated from news. In practice, this is almost impossible to achieve entirely, because the selection of something as being newsworthy is itself a subjective comment. A common way to avoid exacerbating this problem is to have separate news and opinion programs, such as Czech TV's Události at 7pm and Události, komentáře at 10pm. Until this summer, separate moderators were used for the two shows, so viewers did not regularly encounter the personal opinions of the leading news anchors. This has now changed. The same people who read the evening news one day give their opinions on the news the next. Most consistent in this respect is Jakub Železný, who does little to hide his take on anything from the Global Compact for Migration to the ability of media to make or break someone, or even rape. His oft-repeated phrase is, "I think...." Attentive viewers know what Jakub thinks before he even states it. [ Czech Republic Česká televize ČT Television United Nations U.N. anchorman presenter ]