“Dear viewers, thank you for tuning into our television program. I am the founder of the online store Soukupshop.cz and you know me well from television. And I am your guarantee that everything will work as it should,” was heard in the broadcast from Soukup’s mouth. The law says that broadcasters may not include commercial messages featuring newscasters, presenters and editors of news and political affairs programmes. At that time, Soukup moderated several such programs.
The fine was assessed by the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting and confirmed by the Municipal Court in Prague. In the cassation complaint to the NSS, the company Barrandov Televizní Studio pointed out, for example, that Soukup did not act as a presenter at the time, but from the position of the owner of the television and e-shop.
“His familiarity and perception of companies – unlike, for example, the authority of Václav Moravec or other moderators – therefore does not result from the nature of his work as a moderator,” stated in the cassation complaint. At the same time, she stated that Soukup’s performance was not part of the commercial message, i.e. the teleshopping itself, which followed only after the jingle.
The NSS admitted that it can be difficult to determine which of its roles Soukup was acting in at any given moment. However, the court considers this to be irrelevant. What is significant is that Soukup was demonstrably acting as a moderator or editor of news and political-publicity programs at the time, and at the same time was clearly promoting purchases from the e-shop.
“It would take a particular ability to perceive reality, bordering on cognitive dissonance, so that Mr. Soukup’s performance, which is part of the broadcast segment ‘teleshopping’ with a clear visual indication of ‘Jaromír Soukup Shop’, and which directly promotes the products of the ‘Internet store Soukupshop.cz’, was not perceived as a commercial message,” stands in the judgment of the NSS.
Businessman Čermák took control of the indebted Barrandov television this year. Barrandov replaced Soukupa in the single-member board of Televizní Studio.
