The Czech Radio conference on Ukraine will host important guests and be formally opened by the Czech President

"Czech Radio has decided to hold an exclusive conference on the role of the media in the Russian war on Ukraine and broadcast conference content on our news stations. We are honored that the President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel will attend our conference. It is likewise a privilege for us that the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko has promised to participate. Our listeners will also be able to hear unique contributions from Czech and foreign war correspondents," says René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio.

The online conference, which will be broadcast by Czech Radio on the stations Radiožurnál and Plus, as well as streamed online on the iROZHLAS.cz news server, will take place at the venue Jatka 78 in Prague's Holešovice neighborhood on 22 June. It will focus on the role of the media in covering events in Ukraine and the responsibility of journalists and the international community as a whole.

"We have been following the Russian aggression in Ukraine from the very beginning, and we have reporters on the ground all the time, namely our permanent correspondent in Ukraine, Martin Dorazín. The aim of the conference is to showcase the work of our reporters and the work of our Ukrainian colleagues to listeners and supporters. We want to show what problems these journalists are facing and to present what the future of the war-tested country looks like from the point of view of the Czech President and other important world figures," says Ondřej Suchan, director of the Czech Radio News Service.

The conference will be opened by Czech President Petr Pavel at 10 a.m. – his speech will be jointly broadcast by Czech Radio Radiožurnál and Czech Radio Plus. The entire conference will be streamed by iROZHLAS.cz. In addition to keynote speeches by President Pavel and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the program will also include panels on the work of Ukrainian journalists, disinformation, and firsthand accounts by Czech war reporters Martin Dorazin, Petra Prochazkova and Václav Černohorský. The conference will also focus on the prospects of public media in Central and Eastern Europe and the future of Ukraine through the eyes of British journalist Peter Pomerantsev, American historian Marci Shore and Russian opposition journalist Zhanna Nemtsova.   

"We didn't want to do anything opulent, it doesn't make sense in the midst of war. Hence the raw space in Holešovice and the effort to bring to the conference stage as many personal accounts as possible. We sincerely hope that the ongoing war will not prevent guests from participating, but it is unfortunately a difficult time," adds Josef Pazderka, editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Plus.    

The full program (in Czech) of the prestigious conference can be found https://www.irozhlas.cz/konference