Česká tisková kancelář

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Česká tisková kancelář

logo
legal form public law
founding 1918
Seat Prague
management Jiří Majstr (General Director)
Number of employees approx. 352 (2010)
Branch News and press agency
Website www.ctk.cz

ČTK headquarters in Prague 10 , Záběhlice

Česká tisková kancelář (German: Czech Press Agency ), abbreviated to ČTK (read: Četka ), is a Czech news and press agency based in Prague , whose origins go back to 1918.

Before the founding of the Czech Republic it was called (until 1992) Československá tisková kancelář ( Czechoslovak Press Agency ) with the exception of the time of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1945) when it was also called Česká tisková kancelář. The foundation in its current form took place at the end of 1992 after an independent Slovak agency was established in April 1992, which is now called TASR .

history

predecessor

Press agencies were already active in what would later become Czechoslovakia in the mid-19th century. Österreichische Correspondenz , founded in Vienna on October 10, 1849 , renamed the kk Telegraphen-Korrespondenz-Bureau in 1859 , opened a branch in Prague in 1867 and in Brno and Ostrau in 1894 ; In 1906 a Czech department was set up in the Prague office, which from then on produced messages in the Czech language.

The first reporters who either worked in Prague ( Josef Grafnetter , Klaudius Běhal ) or later made careers for other agencies ( Jindřich Oppenheimer , Henri Stephan de Blowitz , both from Blowitz , Sigismund Engländer from Třebíč or Sigmund Kolisch from Koritschan ) also date from this period ).

1918-1989

One of the agency's first reports on October 28, 1918

As early as 1914, the name Československá tisková kancelář was used for news agencies in exile and for various press departments of the numerous country teams. An agency called Česká tisková kancelář was founded in London in 1916 by the later President of Czechoslovakia TG Masaryk . The agency was officially founded on October 28, 1918, i.e. at the same time as the establishment and proclamation of the new state, Czechoslovakia. Almost all employees of the Prague branch of the Telegraph Correspondence Bureau moved to the new agency. From 1920 to 1930 the agency was headed by Emil Čermák , who did not build up the agency himself quickly, but played a key role in the founding of the first European organization of the press agencies, Agences Alliées . The Prague Radio news programs have been broadcast directly from the agency's old building since 1925. In 1930 the company moved to the current building.

During the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by Nazi Germany and the separation of the Slovak subsidiary agency, the name Česká tisková kancelář was used. The security service (SD) and the DNB agency were located in the building. Numerous employees were arrested or went into exile; some of them were executed in 1942.

With the exception of a brief relaxation at the time of the Prague Spring , the post-war period up to 1989 turned out to be a time of conformity for the ČTK. It is true that the international work was strongly supported (in the 1950s, the agency broadcasts in Russian, Spanish, French and English in addition to Czech). While the agency is formally overseen by the government, in reality it is dictated by the Communist Party Central Committee . Soon after the Communist seizure of power in 1948, it was subject to strong censorship and two editorial news lines were created: news for the public on the one hand and confidential news for high party officials on the other, which were divided into several secret levels and which deal with topics such as emigrants and reports by Western media about dissidents and the like. After the defeat of the Prague Spring, the agency carried out even stronger purges than in 1948.

Since 1989

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 enabled the ČTK not only to return to independent intelligence, but also brought some structural and technological changes.

The agency has had an electronic database since 1988, and it has been transformed in line with the new market economy. It becomes an institution under public law, independent of the state, supervision is carried out by a council, whose seven members are elected by parliament . Today she works with multimedia.

After unsuccessful attempts in 1968 to found an independent Slovak press agency, the two states separated in 1992, before the two states separated. A corresponding law was passed on January 30, 1992, which came into force on April 1, 1992 and enabled the establishment of the Slovak agency, first under the name Česko-slovenská tlačová kancelária Slovenskej republiky , from 1993 Tlačová agentúra Slovenskej republiky - Slovakia and from 2008 under the current name Tlačová agentúra Slovenskej republiky .

Departments and Archives

The ČTK agency operates various departments and archives, including:

  • The Infobank contains all news in Czech and English as well as an archive of all Czech daily newspapers (and other periodicals), as well as a document database with data on topics such as countries of the world, biographies, sport, etc.
  • The photo bank contains over five million photographs (1.5 million of which are digitized) from the period from 1920 to the present day
  • The video bank contains a complete collection of all television reports and programs produced by the agency.

The agency also has the archives of other well-known press agencies with which it works.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Jan Stejskal, Četka slaví devadesátiny, Česká tisková kancelář, Praha 2008, online at: i4.cn.cz/ctk (PDF; 1.8 MB), Czech, accessed on July 18, 2010
  2. ↑ By Act 517/1992 Coll. Of October 21, 1992, online at: i4.cn.cz/ctk (PDF; 72 kB), Czech, accessed on July 18, 2010
  3. ↑ www.edb.sk/en , accessed on July 18, 2010
  4. ↑ Agentúru ČTK zastavil len požiar, online at: zaujimavosti.sme.sk , Slovak, accessed on July 18, 2010
  5. ↑ a b O ČTK, History, online at: www.ctk.cz/.../historie , Czech, English version: www.ctk.eu/.../history , accessed on July 18, 2010
  6. ↑ Zákon 517/1992 Sb., Act on the ČTK, especially §§ 4–8, online at: portal.gov.cz , Czech, accessed on July 18, 2010
  7. ↑ www.ctk.cz ... zakladni_informace , Czech, accessed on July 17, 2010

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