We wish you a nice summer and see you after it, said Nora Fridrichová, host of the 168 hours show, to the viewers in June. But he will not see them again. Czech Television canceled the program during the holidays, and Fridrichová now suggests in her first major interview in the Media Circus podcast that political pressures may have been behind it. “Everyone gave the green light to cut the show,” says the well-known presenter.
“The information that we were ending first reached me sometime at the end of May. I don’t want to spread any speculation, but the truth is that at the same time, the TV was discussing the proposal to increase concessionaire fees, so we were encouraged to be more careful and sensitive,” says Nora Fridrichová, who has been the face of the show since its start in autumn 2006.
She had only three short breaks in moderation – twice after the birth of her daughters and once when she performed in StarDance.
“The information came from two places for the first time, and I was wondering if we had a production plan for the first episode in the fall. We had that, so I reassured my colleagues. Then, with a delay, the same information reached me from the Karlovy Vary film festival, where politicians and behind-the-scenes players gather. There are and will be whispers, but then this happened,” he describes.
And about the cancellation of the show for political reasons, he adds: “I have inside information, but I will not say more about it and I have no proof for it, and it is not a question for me. Rather, I think that my employer, Czech Television (ČT), a public institution, should explain to its viewers why this is happening, precisely so that no speculation is spread in the backroom.”
The journalistic program 168 hours mapped the events of the last week and was the target of criticism from politicians from the beginning. They were bothered by reports, satirical glosses and an often straightforward journalistic approach – such as when, for example, in autumn 2020, a comment by the then Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Jana Maláčová from the ČSSD, appeared in a report on the subject of covid. After the official filming, while the cameras were still running, she declared that then Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was a moron.
Much criticism was then often aimed at the final “funny” point of the show. As part of it, the program aired, for example, the famous video in which former President Václav Klaus shoved his jacket protocol pen during a visit to Chile.
Photo: Michal Šula, Seznam Zpravy
The guest of the Media Circus was the presenter of CT Nora Fridrichová.
The reasons for our cancellation varied
“It has always been the case that the management of news and journalism defended everything that fell under them out of principle, because as soon as you give a finger, the other side will scratch your whole hand. That is the unwritten law. Now, for the first time, it happened that the management of news and journalism teamed up with the management of ČT and they all gave the green light to cut the show,” says Fridrichová.
She found out about the final cancellation of the program at the end of July, just before leaving for vacation. Just a few days before, 168 hours featured in the autumn program schedule of television.
The cancellation of the program was explained by the general director of CT Jan Souček as a violation of the rules in the processing of reports. He also argued the disputes in Fridrichová’s team and the complaints of some reporters that they face bossing by the presenter. He called the shootout between Nora Fridrichová and her former superior Mark Wollner in the boulevard as the “last straw” to cancel the show.
The news director Petr Mrzena then in an interview for Currently.cz he claimed that almost every weekend he was informed about what operational and other problems accompanied the production and preparation of reports.
“It involved tense internal editorial discussions about individual topics, especially about editorial procedures and sometimes about compliance with basic journalistic principles. There were debates, for example, about how it is necessary to comply so that both sides of the dispute get space. We also talked about the need to verify the given data,” explained Mrzena for Aktuálně.cz.
Recently, the sharpest criticism has been leveled at reports, one of which was about marriage for all, another was an interview with the mother of one of the victims of the shooting at FF UK, and another was a reaction to the harsh words of the Mayor of Repory, Pavel Novotný from the ODS, addressed to the oncologically ill singer Anna Slováčková .
“The reasons for our cancellation changed a little over time, got a little worse, got a little more and more on our heads, until in the finale, as the entire team of the show, we started to feel that we were complete hochstaplers, that we didn’t really know how to do the job at all and we had to be guided by the hands, which didn’t work anyway, so that’s why we had to quit. This is the official version according to my superiors from the news and journalism building,” says Fridrichová.
He feels that this is an unprecedented step. “It’s the first time I’ve heard something like this from public television officials. This never happened and it seems to me that all of this, pardon the disgust, is coming out of ČT in order to somehow justify our end, because the public did not accept the original message,” says Fridrichová in the Media Circus.
Fridrichová claims that she did not know about the reprimands from the management, because no one told her until the show was canceled. She repeats that her superiors knew the reportage and the composition of the program in advance, agreed and signed it before the broadcast. The deputy editor-in-chief and her supervisor Aneta Snopová described the information that she had clashes and arguments with the management as untruths.
“I personally have nothing against Aneta, and I know that when someone comes into office, they have a hard time, but the fact is that Aneta has a chronic problem with telling the truth and it is known about her,” Fridrichová sharpened the personal disputes in the Kavče horáy.
It admits a single dispute. At a time when Snopová did not want reporters to “ambushed” politicians with a microphone and camera on the sidewalk for 168 hours, but first contacted them by e-mail in advance. Fridrich refused the order and stood up to him. According to Fridrichová, the order came after an “ambush” interview with SPD chairman Tomio Okamura, which was broadcast by 168 Hours this spring. It was Okamura who was among the show’s loudest critics for a long time.
“We rarely caught Tomio Okamura, he never wanted to give us an interview, even though he constantly complained that there were not enough of them in CT. So just when we were interested, he wasn’t interested. So we usually either caught him somewhere, or we noticed various comical moments that he often did when he showed off his muscles and the like. He was always an entertaining politician, but he didn’t like it. It seems to me that he has absolutely no sense of humor, or no sense of humor, which he himself awakens,” describes Fridrichová.
Aneta Snopová herself did not want to react too much to Fridrichová’s words and only sent a brief statement.
“I’m used to criticism of politicians, often very sharp, it’s been a part of my work for many years, and every journalist, especially an investigative one, has to be able to work with it. However, I will not respond to undignified personal insults. I am convinced that it does not belong to the company culture and as a result it damages the professional and necessary work of journalists at ČT,” wrote SZ Snopová.
The risk for journalists is not the politician, but his boss
Fridrichová moderated the program with only small breaks for 18 years, she was its face and dramaturg. As she says herself, she did not accept the end.
“It’s a great job, doing political journalism that fulfills me and is important at the same time, so we stepped into it as much as we could. And that, of course, caused a response, plus the forums from the political corridors that we put out there. I don’t want to exaggerate, but this was on my plate the whole time, and I laugh in front of my superiors that they endured it for 18 years because they didn’t have to,” he describes. According to her, the program was protected the most by the former head of ČT news Zdeněk Šámal.
“You need your boss to hold you because then you can do the work. And if you don’t have such a boss, you will end up with the job. There is a simple formula: The risk for a journalist is not the president, the prime minister or the chairman of a party, but the risk is his own boss,” says Fridrichová and adds: “The new management that came in basically decided that they don’t want to protect such a program. So it’s completely obvious.’
According to her, she does not know what will happen next with her and her team. And whether he will stay at Czech Television, he says, he is not deciding at this moment.
“I get this question often and I’m a little at a loss to answer, because I’m not dealing with this right now. As the criticism has accumulated, as we are bad, I am now devoting that time to defending and defending it (the show), because I believe that is my duty. I consider the work at CT to be a service to the viewers,” adds Fridrichová.
On Monday, in response to Fridrichová’s letter to her colleagues, Czech Television spokeswoman Vendula Krejčová only added that “the reasons for the cancellation of the 168 hours program were repeatedly explained by the management of CT in the media”.
We added Aneta Snopová’s reaction.
What does Fridrichová say about the fact that she should have damaged the good name of ČT? And how much does he admit his own mistakes?
You can play the entire interview in the audio player in the introduction or in your favorite podcast application.
Media circus
Photo: List of News
Moderator Marie Bastlová.
Podcast Marie Bastlova about happenings on the media scene. She is interested in looking into newsrooms, behind the scenes of journalistic work – with leading journalists and media players.
You can find the archive of all parts here. Write us your observations, comments or tips via social networks under the hashtag #medialnicirkus or by e-mail: audio@sz.cz.
