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from www.ceskapozice.cz – The Czech tabloid Pestrý svět boasts on its website that it offers “entirely authentic, exclusive news from the lives of the hottest stars of Czech and foreign show business and is not afraid to reveal the juicy gossip that the rich and famous try to keep the lid on.”
“The editors of Pestrý svět frequently come out with unexpected discoveries from the private lives of Czech celebrities before other tabloids take the news as their own. That is why Pestrý svět has won the reputation of a ‘predator’ that some Czech celebrities are even afraid of,” it says. “There is no place for made-up sensation in Pestrý svět! All the stories described are real and verified. Pestrý svět is simply a tabloid in the best sense of the word, but with much more besides.” ‘There is no place for made-up sensation in Pestrý svět!’
As far as the claims of “authenticity,” a Czech court begs to differ, but apparently agrees there is “no place for made-up sensation in Pestrý svět”: It has ruled the magazine, part of the Bauer Media group, must pay Czech actor Lukáš Vaculík, 49, a record Kč 300,000 in compensation for a 2006 article in which it falsely reported he had “homosexual tendencies.” It must also pay his legal fees and publish a full-page apology.
By comparison, Slovak-born opera singer Štefan Margita was awarded Kč 100,000 in a libel case against a tabloid magazine, Czech Television (ČT) reported. Czech pop singer Helena Vondráčková, now 63, has also frequently tangled with the German-owned publication over its reporting. The magazine was forced to issue an apology over a story alleging she’d had an abortion.
Bauer Media is the largest magazine publisher in the Czech Republic. It publishes 21 magazines and a number of popular specials. The company is the market leader in the program title, social weekly and youth magazine segments. A significant part of the portfolio are so-called women’s and lifestyle magazines. The tabloid Blesk, which is not part of the group, is the best-selling newspaper in the Czech Republic.
Celebrity smack down
In May 2009, a number of prominent Czech celebrities launched a campaign to boycott tabloid media and stop all forms of collaboration with them. Film and stage actor Marek Vašut and popular novelist Michal Viewegh initiated a petition against the tabloids, accusing them of insensitivity, vulgarity, using inappropriate photo montages and fabricating sensationalist stories.
“The courts on each occasion shall refer to paragraphs about alleged public interest that we supposed ‘celebrities’ must endure, although the only real … interest is the financial gain of these publishers,” complained the authors of the petition, to which prominent actors like Martin Dejdar, Eva Holubová and Jiřina Bohdalová added their signatures. “We refuse to remain silent and watch how assorted people ignorant of the truth anonymously and with impunity stain the names of people who have enjoyed some success in life.”
Senator Tomáš Töpfer, himself an actor, brought the issue up with the upper house of parliament’s media commission. “It is necessary to define certain boundaries for the tabloids and find a way to hold them to ethical standards, since the current state of affairs exceeds all ethical limits,” he told Czech online media iDnes.cz at the time.