How Do I Become A Journalist?

5. 4. 2010

I spent all my life in the Czech Republic -- I survived every regime (with the exception of the days of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, to be exact, for I had to spend it in the Reich) -- but I still get surprised by certain things that happen, by some people and their bizarre behaviour.

This case of membership rejection is just one of such cases. The first from the two alleged reasons is "Your publishing activities for the indicated medium is sporadic" (As the media, which I presented, belongs for example Britské listy, Literární noviny and Listy).

I would take into consideration that statement if I thought that a journalist is only that who writes often -- apparently that's the majority of journalists... - but what if someone, who writes "sporadically" (and I am not thinking about myself!), writes about more serious and distinctively better than those who write daily articles? Or is there a given threshold of a given amount of texts, under which one cannot be considered a journalist?

Someone who writes one article per month for a weekly magazine just an occasional writer? Nevertheless, no matter how we judge that first reason, it is the second one that seemed to me rather bizarre: "Before the start of your retirement age you were not a member of the Czech Journalist's Union". That's true. I retired in 1982.

I don't know what PhDr. Aleš Holub and members of the commission, which he presides, know about the situation of journalism during the regime that was forced upon this country in 1948 and lasted until 1989 -- thus including that 1982. Perhaps the Czech Journalist's Union have heard about the selection process in those days. Because until 1982 or in the previous years had not been a member of either the Communist Party nor any other organization connected to the regime, it didn't occur to me, even though I sometimes, "sporadically", had articles published by the economic daily Hospodářský noviny, that I could at the time apply for a membership at the journalist's "syndicate".

(To make it clear: I wrote pieces to HN about rather apolitical economic problems, mostly over the capitalist world.) In other words: If I had been an communist journalist during the old regime I would have a chance to be accepted by the Journalist's Union today... Because I was not, I have no chance. Excuse me, but that seems to me bizarre.

To be completely honest: considering my age, I can live without the membership. It is just the reasons behind the rejection of my membership that seem to me a bit weird -- and that is the only reason I wanted to share them with the readers of www.blisty.cz.

Jan Čulík's Note: It is wiser to NOT be a member of the Czech Journalist's Union.

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