Former Czech Television presenter Václav Moravec is launching his own media project called Moravec.cz. He did so just two months after ending his 21-year tenure at the public broadcaster. The central point of the new platform will be a Sunday discussion program, which will directly compete with Václav Moravec's Questions, which continue under the same name on Czech Television.
The new format, titled Noon with Moravec, will kick off this Sunday at 12:00 PM, the identical broadcast time viewers were accustomed to with public television. For the premiere episode, the moderator has invited Foreign Minister Petr Macinka from the Motoristé sobě party. In the second part of the program, former prime ministers Mirek Topolánek and Jiří Rusnok are expected to appear.
“I will continue to defend free journalism based on facts, not on pseudo-balance or blind balance, which in my opinion subjugates public service television,” Václav Moravec stated in the introductory video for his project.
The moderator also emphasized that he intends to continue defending democratic principles and human rights. His departure from CT in March of this year was accompanied by criticism of the television's management; Moravec then claimed that he could not guarantee the independence of editorial work and faced external pressures. CT management rejected these accusations and called the form of the moderator's farewell unfortunate.
Project Moravec.cz operates on a paid content basis and, in addition to the main Sunday debate, offers other formats. These include discussions titled Generation, aimed at a younger audience, or one-on-one interviews. The first guest in this format is the outgoing Chief of the General Staff Karel Řehka.
Václav Moravec was one of the most prominent faces of Czech Television, where he hosted Sunday debates since 2004. His move to his own online project represents a significant step in the Czech media environment towards building independent paid video platforms based on the strong personal brand of well-known journalists.