There were 1525 applications for asylum in the Czech Republic in 2015, and 71 people were granted asylum. Despite this fact migration was the most covered topic in the Czech media (especially television news services) in 2015. The discussed events were labelled as a wave or flood and were framed as a crisis, threat, and risk not only by the journalists but by politicians as well. This paper is based on quantitative and qualitative research on migration and war refugees from August 17, 2015 to September 18, 2015 in six news programmes of the public service broadcaster, namely the Czech Radio. It is a qualitative case study of the program

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How was the Roma minority represented in the main evening news program Události of Czech Television, the public service media, between 2000 and 2015? This article focuses on the visual representation of Roma and the key signs used in television news reports. It presents findings from analysis based on quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis. Visual representation of the Roma on television news is dominated by images of groups, children and young adults and shots of the environment and places where they live including clutter and ramshackled houses. On the contrary, representations of Roma as authorities are missing. Analysis revealed a long-term repeated thematization of Roma otherness. Although the voice-over is correct, the visual signs used in reports connote negative meanings and stereotypes. Through such visuals Roma are constructed as culturally different. Thus news accentuated and reproduced negative attitudes that a large part of the Czech majority maintains towards Roma.

This paper focuses on Sinophobia which is usually not expressed openly in the public service media. The Sinophobia discourse intensified in 2020 in connection with the coverage of the pandemic. How are anti-Chinese attitudes expressed in the news discourse of the Czech Radio and Czech Television? Examples from a broader analysis of the representation of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic in news and journalism programmes are given. Inductive qualitative research methods (discourse and semiotic analysis) were used to detect subtle nuances of meaning and reveal implicit presuppositions. This study focuses on the manifestations of bias, e.g., the ideologically grounded attitudes of the speakers. The anti-Chinese statements (about poor hygiene habits and eating wild animals) were most often mentioned in connection with the origin of the coronavirus, vaccination, and China expansive policy. Sinophobic messages were built on the opposition of Us and Them, which is, according to van Dijk (2000), the core of new racism. In spite of the fact that the open hate speech and systematic bias (intentional implications, obvious evaluation or signposting) were not found in the researched sample, the analysis identified the presence of Sinophobic statements in both public service media.

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