Czech commercial television station broadcast racist jokes on Christmas, broadcast council warns they broke the law

The Czech Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting has issued a press release announcing that it has warned the operator of the Kino Barrandov television station, the Barrandov Televizní Studio a.s., company, that it has broken Section 32 Paragraph 1 letter i) of Act No. 231/2001. As part of its program called “Joke for A Hundred Crowns” (“Vtip za stovku“), on 25 December 2019 at 18:45 the station broadcast two jokes that drew on prejudicial stereotypes of ethnic Romani people being typical perpetrators of crimes or committing crime from an early age.

TV Barrandov is in breach of its lawful duty not to include as part of its programming any shows that confirm prejudicial stereotypes about ethnic, racial or religious minorities, and the broadcast authority said the company had seven days to correct the situation from the date on which the warning was delivered to them. The channel has offered racist, stereotype-based humor to its viewers repeatedly.

For example, in 2013 TV Barrandov broadcast two racist jokes on that same program and was also called upon by the broadcast authority at that time to correct the situation within seven days. Issuing a correction once a program has already aired, however, is apparently absolutely not working as a sanction.