''Respekt'' is a Czech weekly

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio, or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories in greater depth than newspapers or new ...

published in Prague, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, reporting on domestic and foreign

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

issues, as well as on

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

History and profile

''Respekt'' was founded soon after the fall of Communist party from power in 1989 by a group of

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

journalists as one of the first independent magazines. It is the successor of ''Informační servis'' (), an opposition samizdat paper. ''Respekt'' is published weekly and has its headquarters in Prague. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' describes ''Respekt'' as "influential". In 2005, ''Respekt'' published details about business connection between Prime Minister

Stanislav Gross Stanislav Gross (; 30 October 1969 – 16 April 2015) was a Czech lawyer and politician who served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic and leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party from 2004 until 2005 when he resigned as a result of ...

' wife and a brothel owner, starting a scandal leading to downfall of Gross several months later; in 2008 it published an article alleging that

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera ( ; ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship ...

, when a student, denounced to the police a Czech spy for the West. The circulation of the weekly magazine peaked at over 100,000 copies in the middle of the 1990s. At this time, the (loss generating) weekly was bought by

Karel Schwarzenberg Karel Schwarzenberg (, 10 December 1937 – 12 November 2023) was a Czech politician, diplomat and statesman who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Czech Republic), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 2007 to 2009 and ...

's ''R-Presse''. The circulation has been dropping steady over the time causing Respekt's losses to increase to 7 million

Czk The koruna, or crown (currency sign, sign: Kč; ISO 4217, code: CZK, ), has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's eight currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to Czech Repub ...

in 2003. In 2006,

Zdeněk Bakala Zdeněk Bakala (born 7 February 1961) is a Czech entrepreneur and investor. Business career Zdenek Bakala is a stakeholder in mining, energy, financial businesses and owns the media company Economia, the publisher of '' Hospodářské noviny'' a ...

obtained majority in ''Respekt'' and planned to eliminate the loss by making the journal more mainstream. The proposed changes led to fear among both readers and the editors that the unique flavour of the weekly will be destroyed. Later that September, all editors threatened to leave.

Legal actions

Since ''Respekt'' regularly reports on its investigations into bribery scandals, criminal activity or government mishandling, legal action have been periodically taken against it – often by top level politicians. Most of these cases that have gone to court have been won by the magazine. The most visible case was the Czech government's 2001 attempt to sue ''Respekt'' for libel.

Miloš Zeman Miloš Zeman (; born 28 September 1944) is a Czech politician who served as the third president of the Czech Republic from 2013 to 2023. He also previously served as the prime minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. As leader of the Cze ...

, the instigator of the case, saw it as a way to end the journal. The case fizzled away only embarrassing the government.

Editors in chief

Jan Ruml Jan Ruml (born 5 March 1953 in Prague) is a Czech politician who was interior minister from 1992 to 1997. Government career Before becoming Interior Minister, Jan Ruml served as deputy Interior Minister in 1991. Jan Ruml announced his resignatio ...

(1990) * Ivan Lamper (1990–1994) *

Vladimír Mlynář Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology T ...

(1994–1997) *

Martin Fendrych Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * Mart� ...

(1998) * Petr Holub (1998–2002) *

Tomáš Němeček Tomáš () is a Czech and Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas. Tomáš is also a surname (feminine: Tomášová). Notable people with the name include: Given name Sport *Tomáš Berdych (born 1985), Czech tennis player * Tomáš Chor� ...

(2003–2005) * Marek Švehla (2005–2006) *

Martin Milan Šimečka Martin Milan Šimečka (born 3 November 1957) is a Slovak journalist and writer. Life and career Martin Milan Šimečka is the son of , a prominent Czech dissident during the Communist regime. He received technical training at the Slovnaft pl ...

(2006–2009) * Erik Tabery (2009–present)

Visual style

In September 2007, the colored print format was replaced the black-white photos as the advertisement section was expanded.

References

External links

respekt.cz Officialwebsite
* History of Respekt
overview 1overview 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Respekt 1989 establishments in Czechoslovakia Czech-language magazines Magazines established in 1989 Magazines published in Prague News magazines published in Europe Weekly magazines