ROMEA TV nominated for prestigious Journalism Award in Czech Republic for 2018
František Bikár, Richard Samko and Tereza Heková, the production team of the first Romani Internet television channel, ROMEA TV, have been nominated for the prestigious Journalism Award for 2018 for their “10 Minute Insight” (Desetiminutovka) talk show program. The list of those nominated was announced by the Open Society Fund Prague on Monday, 15 April and the winners will known on 2 May.
An independent jury nominated three journalists in each category of competition for the best work submitted. “The gala award ceremony will take place on Thursday, 2 May 2019 at the Jatka 78 arts and theater space in Prague, on the eve of International Free Press Day, and will be attended by the jurors, the media, and others,” the foundation announced in a press release.
“ROMEA TV is the only Romani Internet television channel reporting the news, and it creates room for Romani people in its ’10 Minute Insight’ program who are not visible in the mainstream media and whose attitudes and opinions about life and society are therefore not heard,” Samko told Romea.cz. “I and the entire team at ROMEA TV follow the motto: ‘Extraordinary people speaking normally’ for ’10 Minute Insight’. That slogan exactly captures the Romani figures who have extended themselves into the world, who are doing their best to be positive role models for their children, for those around them, and for society. These are Romani people who deserve admiration and attention. Thanks to ROMEA TV and to ’10 Minute Insight’, they get it.”
“I think ’10 Minute Insight’ deserves appreciation, because for 10 years now it has been created largely by our sheer determination to fight for respect for Romani people. The people who contribute to it for a symbolic honorarium believe it’s worth it,” said the head of the ROMEA TV video team, František Bikár.
“The nomination for this journalism award was a nice surprise. I perceive that to already be an appreciation of the work by the team who contribute to creating the program, but credit also goes to the entire ROMEA organization and also to our families who support us in our work, and mainly to the figures who appear in our ’10 Minute Insight’ program, because thanks to them this world is a better place to live in,” said camera operator and editor Tereza Heková.
ROMEA TV’s “10 Minute Insight” was nominated in the category of audiovisual journalism for “Best interview, talk show, discussion” and ended up in the company of the best journalists in the Czech Republic. Other nominees in the category are Daniel Stach from the “Hyde Park Civilization” program on public broadcaster Czech Television and Marie Bastlová from the “20 Minutes of Radiožurnál” program on public broadcaster Czech Radio.
ROMEA TV has broadcast “10 Minute Insight” online for almost a decade. The absolutely first episode was broadcast on 25 August 2009, when moderator Tomáš Bystrý invited the then-chair of the ROMEA association, Jarmila Balážová, to the studio for an interview.
Among the 114 guests interviewed so far at ROMEA’s studio have been Romani representatives of the music scene such as Rytmus, Monika Bagárová, Jan Bendig and Igor Kmeťo, police officers Petr Torák and Igor Gunár, businesspeople Vladimír Michalčík, Valentýn Toráč and Lukáš Vlačuha, the politicians Martin Mata and Karel Karika, ice hockey players Dominik Lakatoš and Pavlína Horváthová, and dozens more guests whom ROMEA TV discovered and thanks to which big media outlets also took notice of them. The program was first anchored by Bystrý, who was joined in 2010 by Jarmila Balážová, Robert Ferko, and Richard Samko, who has been the interviewer since 2015.
