by Miloš Hroch, Charles University
On Saturday, March 15, citizens gathered in Prague for the first meeting of the Czech Citizens’ Parliament on Media and Democracy. Among them were teachers, active seniors, artists, and medicine students who were not unconcerned about public discourse and affairs. They engaged in lively discussions throughout the day, which set the course of the whole citizens’ parliament process.
Respectful discussion
The longest and most intense discussion among the participants in the citizens’ parliament was about the voting mechanisms. The moderators then called for a fifteen-minute break and, after the break, proposed compromise solutions, which the citizens’ parliament agreed to quickly. They agreed on ethical, respectful, and substantive discussion, where such a thing as a bad opinion does not exist.
How public needs are manufactured?
Then, the participants of the citizens’ parliament discussed the matters of how media could better represent society and the people with two experts, Vlastimil Nečas from the Department of Media Studies at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (Charles University) and renowned columnist and journalist David Klimeš, also a former director of Endowment Fund of Independent Journalism. They asked clever and complex questions such as whether there are discrepancies between public interest and public needs and how media companies create and use those categories. Or, how can we better balance the audiences’ demands with the demands of the media market in capitalist societies?
Media for the people and by the people
The most important part of the day was dedicated to developing subtopics that would serve as a backbone for the next three meetings of the citizens’ parliament, which will focus on three thematic areas: media systems, media representation, and media participation. Participants were tasked to come up with lists of subtopics, and they were pretty productive. Next time, citizens will deliberate on improving the election system for the TV and radio broadcasting boards, promoting the importance of community media or creating a mechanism for public participation in media policymaking. It seems the Czech citizens’ parliament has some work to do, and we are excited about what resolutions the participants will agree on!