Czech News Agency

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

Prior to the establishment of the Czech Republic it was called (until 1992 ) Československé tisková kancelář ( Czechoslovak Press Agency ) except for the period of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( 1939-1945 ), as it was also called Česká tisková kancelář. The foundation in its present form took place after the end of 1992 already in April 1992, was an independent Slovak Agency, which is called TASR today.

History

Predecessor

In the area of the later Czechoslovakia mid-19th century press agencies have been active. Founded in Vienna on October 10, 1849 Austrian correspondence, 1859 renamed kk Telegraph correspondence Bureau, opened in 1867 in Prague and 1894 in Brno and Ostrava a branch; In 1906 the Prague office a Czech division that henceforth produced messages in the Czech language.

From this time, the first reporter who worked in Prague originate either (Josef Graf Netter, Claudius Běhal ) or with other agencies to make a career later ( Jindřich Oppenheimer, Henri Stephan de Blowitz, both from Blowitz, Sigismund Englishman from Třebíč and Sigmund Kolisch from Koritschan ).

1918-1989

Since about 1914, the name Československé tisková kancelář was used for news agencies in exile and for various press departments of the large rural teams. In London, an agency with the name Česká tisková was founded in 1916 by kancelář later president of Czechoslovakia, TG Masaryk. The Agency was officially founded on October 28, 1918 that is the same with the foundation and the exclamations of the new state of Czechoslovakia. Almost all employees of the Prague branch of the telegraph correspondence bureaus were transferred to the new agency. From 1920 to 1930, the agency of Emil Cermak was passed, which is not the agency itself quickly built, but to maßgheblich also involved in the founding of the first European organization of press agencies Agencies Alliées. Since 1925, the news broadcasts of Radio Prague will be sent directly from the old building of the Agency. In 1930 the company moved into the membranous building.

During the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by Nazi Germany and the separation of the Slovak part of the agency name Česká was tisková kancelář used. In the building of the Security Service (SD ) and the Agency DNB were settled. Many employees were arrested or went into exile; some of them were executed in 1942.

With the exception of short-term easing during the Prague Spring, the post-war period proved to 1989 for the CTK as a time of Gleichschaltung. Although the international work was strongly supported ( in the 1950s, the Agency shall broadcasts except in Czech, Russian, Spanish, French and English). The Agency will indeed formally supervised by the government, but in reality it is subject to the dictates of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Soon after the Communist takeover in 1948 it is undergoing an extensive censorship and there are two editorial news lines: news for the public on the one hand and confidential messages for senior party officials on the other hand, have been divided into several security levels and dealing with issues such as immigrants, reports by Western media on dissidents and similar concerned. After the defeat of the Prague Spring even stronger purges were carried out as in 1948 the Agency.

Since 1989

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 enabled the CTK to return not only to an independent news activity, but also brought a number of structural and technological changes.

Since 1988, the agency has an electronic database, it transforms itself according to the new market conditions. It is made ​​at a public institution, independent of the state, the supervision of a board whose seven members are elected by the Parliament. It is a multimedia operates.

After unsuccessful attempts in 1968 to establish an independent Slovak press agency, there was a separation in the course of 1992, even before the separation of the two states. On 30 January 1992 a similar law was passed, which entered into force on 1 April 1992 and the establishment of the Slovak Agency allowed, first under the name Česko - Slovenská tlačová kancelária Slovenskej Republiky, from 1993 Tlačová agentúra Slovenskej Republiky - Slovakia and from republiky 2008 under the present name Tlačová agentúra Slovenskej.

Departments and archives

The agency CTK operates various departments and archives, including:

• The Info Bank contains all the news in Czech and English language as well as archive of all Czech newspapers ( and other periodicals), also a document database with data on topics such as countries in the world, biographies, sports, etc.
• Image bank contains over five million photographs (of which 1.5 million digitized) from the period from 1920 to the present
• The video database contains a complete collection of all produced by the Agency television reports and broadcasts.

In addition, the agency also has the archives of other reputable news agencies with which it works.