(ANALYSIS) PRAGUE— Walking around and trying to look deeply into the surface of this extraordinary city, learning about the history of the most atheistic country seemed like an easy job.

Peeking through the doors of beautiful historic churches was like walking in old and dusty graveyards: empty and lifeless. Examining Prague and trying to understand the views of Czech people on religion and spirituality in the country, it looked as if I was going back and forth between their absolute rejection of faith, and on the other hand, their hesitation to criticize the backbone of religion in their lives.

“Spiritual dimension is in everything because it is part of our being,” said Daniel Raus, the former editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Plus. “I often hear complaints that after 40 years of communist totality our country did not go through real reflection or even decommunization. Well, that is not possible without seeing the spiritual dimension of communist ideology.”

The shadow of the past

Czech citizens seem as if they do not want to look through history to find the reasons for this but instead live in the present where religion doesn’t have a valuable place in their lives.

Dwelling in my mind were statements I heard from people, answering my questions about how the media covers faith in the country and if they believe that more media coverage is needed here.

“I think it would be interesting but most people wouldn’t care,” said 21-year-old Majda.

“I am not sure if there is enough but it depends on the context,” said 58-year-old Anna.

“There are small communities in Prague that are Catholic, and I feel they would want more,” said 27-year-old Barbara.

The one common thing between all of them was the following comment: “I am not sure, as I am an atheist.”

What does it mean? Maybe it means denial of the church as an institution? Or total distrust in the whole system?

As I researched media content, it became quite clear to me that churches find their place in the news primarily (if not only) when the subject is business or economics related — church properties and estates — as if shaking away the communist past; political and/or financial correlations.

Looking at the local religious life — it barely ever is a subject of media focus. “It was really fashionable to cover religious subjects for one or two years, maybe around … 1990-1991, but after that, it went downhill again,” Ladka Bauerova, an AFP fact-checker journalist, told ReligionUnplugged.com.

The new reality

“There are certain media outlets that serve the interest of particular religious groups. It is fairly easy to say that commercial media quite rarely covers religious events if there is not a bigger problem,” said Veselin Vačkov, the director of the oldest daily newspaper in the country, Lidové Noviny.

In his opinion, when there is not enough need and interest from society, there is not any business case for the media to be more proactive and produce more of this content.

According to Raus, the problem with journalists covering religion is completely different. It is because most of the interpretation in the Czech Republic media is reduced to a “horizontal” dimension — including the question “why?”

“It does not mean that coverage would be superficial or that journalists would not do a good job [covering religion],” Raus said. “Often they just don't see the ‘vertical’ dimension and are not aware of its importance and huge consequences it has in our life.”

It mostly seems as if religion in the Czech Republic is boxed into the category of “what's going on in the churches.” Many times this category is simply about politics in churches. Journalists cover news in church life the same way as they cover news in political parties, sports, culture or the lives of celebrities.

Raus told participants at the European Journalism Institute that his bosses at Czech Radio once asked him to start a radio program about religion. Raus initially thought the ideas was risky because many Czechs - after years of communism - were known to be atheist or anti-religious. But he took the assignment, demonstrated creativity in his reporting and discussing religion broadly with audiences. And he was pleasantly surprised when his show on religion became one of the top-ranked and most listened to shows in the country.

Spirituality as part of life

It is pretty clear that in media outlets like Lidové Noviny and similar outlets with widespread impact, religious themes come up from time to time. But there are not any specialized departments or teams to follow and cover the developing subjects.

However, some say journalists’ work is about showing the events as they are — subjectively, truthfully and in a way that is easy to understand.

“There are many deep reasons for the situation now, mostly historical ones as churches have been compromised for ages,” said Vačkov.

Of course, every rule has its exception, as in the case of Katolický Týdeník (Catholic Weekly), described as the most-read and most important Catholic newspaper in the Czech Republic. Even though the numbers seem to be quite optimistic, the reality is completely different. Their social media followings are kind of discouraging — a bit more than 4,000 people have liked the Facebook page, and most of the posts are liked/reacted to by about 10 or 20 people.

Is this someone’s fault? 

Is there someone to be blamed if journalists are really not keen to cover the topic of religion and maybe don’t know how to do it properly and thoroughly?

Perhaps the most honest assumption would be to accept that media outlets and their journalists are serving as a mirror of the historical and populist reality. Maybe most journalists as people with their own personal views and opinions have not found the role of religion important enough in their own lives.

Ivelina Georgieva is a news editor at Bulgarian National Radio and is doctoral student. She has a bachelor’s degree in TV journalism and a master’s in European studies from Sofia University.

Nikol Gileva is completing her bachelor’s in journalism and works in the international news department at NOVA TV in Bulgaria.

Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a 7-part series reported by 24 young journalists from 16 countries who studied at the European Journalism Institute in Prague in July of 2022. EJI is co-funded and programmed by The Media Project (the parent non-profit of ReligionUnplugged.com) and The Fund for American Studies. EJI 2022 took place at Anglo-American University.

Faint Signs of Faith

◦ ◦ ⦿ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ Next