The cost of having Křetínský

The Czech Republic fell a sobering six notches in the World Press Freedom Index, to No. 40. Not surprising is the mention of Miloš Zeman's attack on Czech TV in his inaugural address in March 2018, when Miroslava Němcová and other MPs walked out of the Castle hall. Nor is it unexpected for an international monitoring organization to frown at the mixture of politics and media practised by Andrej Babiš. Undoubtedly, Zeman and Babiš have contributed to the "increasingly outrageous discourse." But what does Daniel Křetínský's entry into the French media market have to do with the state of Czech press freedom? Reporters Without Borders gives no answer to this question. Or should we say Reporters sans frontières, the Paris-based compiler of the index? It doesn't even seem to be aware of Křetínský's Czech media holdings, but it clearly isn't impressed by his "offensive" into Elle, Marianne and Le Monde. How many of those six notches are punishment for Křetínský?