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Magazine Přes

Jos Stübner

1 The practice

2 Hints for an evaluation

2.1 Strengths, critical points, and comments:

Following Milan Stefanec from "Přes", the big advantage of the magazine is the principle of voluntary and often external authors. That means that "Přes" can benefit from the new ideas and new perspectives which are brought by every new writer, instead of a monotone inflexibility that a fixed team might produce.
At the same time, this also means a big problem for the magazine. According to Stefanec, there is a permanent uncertainty in planning for the future because of the constant change of writers.

The importance of "Přes" in the Czech Republic lies to a wide extent in its unique character. Evidently there is a big need to inform the public about people with foreign origins in order to fight stereotypes and prejudice. Because of this publishing Přes is of big value.
 
It is questionable, if the small edition can really achieve improvement of the situation. Milan Stefanec also spoke about his ambition to enforce the circulation of Přes. This is probably necessary in any case in order to fulfil the goal of changing society’s attitude. However, it has to be mentioned that "Přes" is only one example of all of the activities of Nesehnuti. Beside this they try to affect the society’s attitude by the means of exhibitions and by educational programmes in schools. It can also be criticised that the magazine mainly works as a journal of activists for activists and other people. Except for some interviews, it does not fit with the conception of empowerment at all.

Nevertheless, the project, with its unique character, has to be seen as very necessary in order to enrich the medial scenery in the Czech Republic by another view than the official one. Of course it remains a big demand for more variety of medial products in this field. Milan Stefanec also favours more of these types of journals due to the lack of different views.
Finally, "Přes" is the first step to fill a gap in the medial landscape of the Czech Republic.