The Czech News Agency (Česká tisková kancelář, CTK) is the national public service news agency of Czechia. It publishes news in Czech and English; its Slovak service was terminated in 2011. The agency was established in 1918, the day the state of Czechoslovakia was formed.
Media assets
News agency: CTK
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State Managed (ISM)
Ownership and governance
The agency is governed by the CTK Act, which was enacted in 1992. CTK was established as an independent public corporation, accountable solely to the public.
The primary governing body of CTK is the Czech News Agency Council, which comprises five members appointed by the Chamber of Deputies for a five-year term. The Council is responsible for appointing the agency’s General Director.
Individuals holding political office or public positions are ineligible for appointment to the CTK Council. However, members of the CTK Board are not selected based on nominations from civil society, which allows the authorities to exert a certain degree of influence over the agency’s governance bodies.
Source of funding and budget
According to the CTK Act, the agency is primarily funded through commercial revenues generated from the sale of content. The law specifies that the agency may receive state subsidies in certain situations, but these subsidies cannot be used to cover the agency’s losses.
In 2020, most of CTK’s budget was generated from content sales and other services. Overall, CTK earned total revenues of CZK 267m (US$ 12.5m or €10.2m) in 2020, with the majority of the earnings coming from sales of news content, photos, videos, and other news-related services, as indicated in an annual report.
The agency reported sales of products and services amounting CZK 282.6m (US$ 12.9 million or €11.1m) in 2021, as per the company’s annual report. Additionally, its total income in 2021, including compensation and subsidies from the EU, was CZK 291.1m (US$ 13.3m or €11.4m).
In 2022, CTK’s total income exceeded CZK 305.8m, an increase of 8.2% compared to the previous year (US$ 12.6m or €12.4m). In the following year, the agency’s income surged further to CZK 312.9m (US$ 14.2m or €13m).
Editorial independence
No restrictive rules are imposed on CTK’s editorial policy. The agency’s financial self-sustainability has empowered it to build and defend its independence.
To our knowledge, there has been no evidence of a pro-government bias in CTK’s editorial coverage in recent years. This lack of bias is mostly due to the logic behind the agency’s funding model. To be commercially viable and able to sell content, CTK has to ensure its reporting is fact-based and unbiased.
The CTK Code is a domestic regulation that mandates the agency’s personnel to adhere to a set of public service media principles and editorial guidelines to safeguard the agency’s independence.
The CTK Council is responsible for overseeing, monitoring, and evaluating the agency’s performance to ensure compliance with legal requirements and maintain independent and objective coverage. However, due to its appointment mechanism, the council cannot be considered independent.
August 2024