The lost decade of Czech journalism

It's the year 2020, and the last of the Czech newspapers has been wrenched from the hands of the oligarchs who stripped them of their independence and respectability and drove them into the ground financially. The independent media are thriving again. Newspapers are providing unbiased news, and start-ups are no longer the frequent targets of Czech billionaires with global political influence. Even Czech TV has chosen a general director with no ties to any of the Five Families or to production companies making overpriced period dramas. Commentators are stressing how close the country came to a media dictatorship. A debate is waging about a new lustration law that would require anyone entering public office to prove that he or she never worked for one of the media oligarchs. Predictably, some of the biggest critics of the law are the writers and editors who won awards during the lost decade of Czech journalism.