By Vaia Doudaki, Charles University
The Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy, the first to be organised in the country, presented its resolutions at a roundtable in the Senate of the Czech Republic on 5 June 2025.
The roundtable „Media for Democracy: Roundtable on Strengthening Media and Democracy in the Czech Society“ was held in the Senate under the auspices of the 1st Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic, Jiří Drahoš, with co-organisers the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (Charles University), the OSF (Open Society Foundations) and the Independent Journalism Endowment Fund (NFNZ).
Miloš Hroch and Karolína Šimková, members of the Czech MeDeMAP research team (Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University), introduced the rationale, design and organisation of the Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy, reflecting about the demanding but also rewarding experience of being moderators of the citizen parliament.
Amanda Baxová, one of the citizen parliament participants, presented the outcomes of the parliament’s sessions and activities, formulated as resolutions, addressing specific claims, demands and suggested action for the strengthening of media’s democratic roles in the Czech society. In a symbolic gesture, after her talk, Ms Baxová, submitted the Czech citizens’ resolutions to the Senate of the Czech Republic handing over the resolutions report to Mr. Drahoš.
The speakers of the roundtable included also:
- Dr Marína Urbániková, member of the board of directors of the Independent Journalism Foundation, assistant professor at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University
- David Smoljak, Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on the Media
- Martina Břeňová, director of the OSF Foundation
- Pavel Mička, head of the Department for Cooperation with Civil Society, Office of the Government of the Czech Republic
The speakers of the roundtable agreed that the future of democracy depends on supporting independent media and on strengthening processes of open dialogue between the state and society. Creating spaces and opportunities to actively involve ordinary citizens in public debate regarding major societal issues, supported through formats such as the one of the Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy, is seen as part of these core processes.
About the Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy
The Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy took place during March – May 2025. Twenty citizens deliberated on the role of media in the Czech society and formulated in total 31 resolutions, advocating for concrete steps towards the strengthening of the role of Czech media—broadly defined—in supporting democracy, in the areas of media systems, media representation and media participation.
The Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy held four one-day sessions, each session focussing on specific themes and topics concerning the role of media in democratic societies, and in the Czech society more specifically. The parliamentarians were engaged in intensive cycles of learning, groupwork, dialogue, deliberation and decision-making, formulating and voting the resolutions that were deemed important to enhance the media’s democratic roles.
The citizen parliament was characterized by demographic, geographical and ideological diversity of its participants, reflecting the diversity of the Czech society. To further engage with the principle and practice of geographical diversity and facilitate the interactions of the participants with regional and local experts, the citizen parliament held sessions in three different Czech cities: Two sessions were held in Prague (on 15 March and 17 May), one in Olomouc (on 5 April) and one in Brno (on 26 April).
During this three-month period, the parliamentarians reflected, deliberated and voted 31 resolutions about:
- how to organise the Czech media landscape to better serve democracy by enhancing transparency, accountability and protection of media freedoms;
- how media content can better support democracy by representing the diversity and pluriformity of the Czech society;
- how to ensure that citizens have better access to the media, that their voices and issues are better represented in the media, and how citizen participation can be enhanced in and through the media.
The Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy was organised as part of the MeDeMAP (Mapping Media for Future Democracies) research project. Organiser of the Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy was CULCORC, the Culture and Communication Research Centre at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at Charles University, led by Extraordinary Professor Nico Carpentier. The Czech organising team consisted also of Associate Professor Vaia Doudaki, Assistant Professor Miloš Hroch, PhD researchers Štěpán Šanda, Karolína Šimková, Klára Odstrčilová, Mazlum Kemal Dağdelen and finance officer Dr. Natálie Švarcová.
For Nico Carpentier, who led the organisation of the Czech citizen parliament, “citizen parliaments are a precious tool to bridge the gap between citizens and political institutions, and I hope that they will be used more in the Czech Republic, at national and local levels”. The experience from the organisation of the parliament showed that “citizens, with very different backgrounds and positions can meet, deliberate and agree on the future roles of media in Czech society. It has been a wonderful experiment in enhancing democracy, and it worked!” The resolutions report of the Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy (currently available in Czech) can be accessed here: https://medemap.fsv.cuni.cz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Cesky-obcansky-parlament-o-mediich-a-demokracii-3.pdf