The Committee for Editorial Independence advocates free journalism and oversees that the editors of the media house Economia carry out their work without any intervention of the owner.
„The Committee is a guarantee of fearless and free journalism. We want to reassure the reader that the editors are not influenced by owner‘s or political interests. Our decisions and opinions are completely independent of the shareholders and management of Economia.” Tessa Szyszkowitz, Chairperson of the Committee.
The Economia media house aims to be a synonym of free, professional journalism, and that is why on the initiative of its owner and Board of Directors it set up the Committee for Editorial Independence (CEI). The CEI seeks to improve not only the Czech media environment, but also to advance the journalistic culture of Central and Eastern Europe, and possibly of other countries.
The CEI role’s as a completely independent body is to promote the idea of free media and to guarantee to readers and the general public that Economia’s journalists and editors may carry out their work free from inappropriate interference. Any journalist or editor of Economia who believes to have been subjected to direct or indirect interference from Economia’s owner may contact the CEI. Also, any other person outside Economia who can substantiate that the work of any of Economia’s journalists or editors has been affected by such interference may contact the CEI. The CEI does not deal with submissions which are evidently baseless or vexatious.
The CEI consists of respected journalists from across Europe who know and understand the Czech media environment. The CEI is completely independent and reports neither to other Economia’s bodies nor to its shareholder. Therefore, its statements need not reflect the official opinion of the Economia media house.
Tessa Szyszkowitz
Tessa is a historian, journalist, and author. After starting her career at Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung and Austria’s Arbeiterzeitung she has been a correspondent in Jerusalem, Brussels, and Moscow writing for German language weeklies. She currently is a foreign affairs columnist at the Austrian weekly Falter and a London correspondent for Austrian news magazine Profil. Tessa is a regular commentator on European affairs in British and European TV and radio, she is a curator at Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue in Vienna and is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Security and Defence Studies in London. She has authored several critically acclaimed books, including Echte Engländer - Britain and Brexit.
Alexandra Borchardt
Alexandra is a senior journalist and book author, journalism professor, media consultant and Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. She also supports local newsrooms with digital transformation as a coach for WAN-IFRA’s Table Stakes Europe project and co-leads the Digital Journalism Fellowship at Hamburg Media School. She serves as an expert on the Council of Europe Committee on Freedom of Expression and Digital Technologies. Prior to this she was Director of Leadership Programmes at the Reuters Institute and before that managing editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Aleksander Kaczorowski
Aleksander is a Polish editor, bohemist, author of various books and translator of Czech literature. He is a former deputy editor-in-chief of Newsweek Polska, chief editor of the Op-ed section of Gazeta Wyborcza and editor-in-chief of Aspen Review Central Europe. His recent books include biographies of Václav Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Ota Pavel and Isaac Babel, an interview with former President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski and an essay guide to Czech history, culture and way of life Czechy. To nevymyslíš (Czechia. You can't make this up). He won the Ambassador of New Europe Prize, awarded by the European Solidarity Center in Gdańsk (2015), the Václav Burian Prize (2016) and Juliusz Prize for the best Polish biography (2019) for the book about Ota Pavel.
Václav Štětka
Václav Štětka is Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University in the UK, and member of the university’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture. His research interests encompass political communication and the role of new media, media systems in Central and Eastern Europe, media ownership and journalistic autonomy. Since 2016 he has been Vice-Chair of the Political Communication Section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association).
Misha Glenny
Misha is an author and journalist with a rich background in cyber security, geopolitics, criminology and broadcasting. He studied at the University of Bristol and Prague's Charles University before becoming Central Europe correspondent for The Guardian and later the BBC. He specialized in reporting on the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s. While at the BBC, Glenny won a Sony Gold Award for his "outstanding contribution to broadcasting". As an author he has published three books about Central and Eastern Europe. His best-selling non-fiction book, McMafia - about the globalization of organized crime - was adapted into a major TV drama series broadcast in the US and UK.
Submissions may be sent to the CEI also by e-mail to rada@economia.cz, or by post to the Economia’s address, attention Secretary of the Committee. In case a submission does not meet the criteria for its review and processing, the Secretary will notify the claimant and will request the submission to be supplemented with additional information. In case the Committee arrives at the conclusion that editorial freedom has been affected by interference from Economia’s shareholder, it may publish its findings and propose appropriate measures to the Board of Directors of Economia. The Secretary shall inform the claimant about the Committee’s decision.