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Myths and Controversies: Ukrainian Volunteer Units in Donbas 2014-15
Mastný, David ; Zilynskyj, Bohdan (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
Ukrainian paramilitary volunteer units became a key to fight threats of the russo-separatist hybrid war and their activity could be strongly reflected in the outcome of combat operations. This case study examines a phenomenon of volunteer battalions including myths and controversies that accompany them. The paper defines and analyzes four most controversial issues that are connected with volunteer units and confronts them with reality. Furthermore, it deals with roots and origins of these controversies and examines consequences of problematic units on the security and political situation in Ukraine. These topics include a spread of radical nationalism, fascism and neo-Nazism in volunteer units, criminal activities of volunteer fighters , the role of religion in the volunteer movement and links between volunteer units and political parties or oligarchs and related problems such as financing.
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Reforms of the Ukrainian Energy Industry
Balahura, Milan ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Lídl, Václav (referee)
The energy sector of Ukraine is of strategic importance not only within the national economy, but is also significant from a European perspective, because it includes transit energy networks that are essential for a large part of Europe. The fundamental problem still remains low energy efficiency of the economy, obsolete infrastructure, dysfunctional system and the absence of major reforms. At the moment, another round of reforms is taking place under the influence of a rapprochement with the European Union, to modernize the sector and adapt it to European standards. This work describes the development of the sector and the reform efforts since independence until today with a particular focus on the gas sector and the period 2014 to 2017. This is particularly the developments in the energy market, pricing policies, availability, security and decentralization of the system. In addition, the work also focuses on the development of energy efficiency, the environment and renewable energy sources. Following on the theoretical basis (especially the theory of institutional economics) through analysis of described facts assesses developments in the reforms and their impact on the whole sector including evaluation of the role and influence of oligarchs in these reform attempts. In terms of reforms, four...
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The Relationship Between Media Ownership and News Content: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Year In Review Articles on 2019 and 2020 in Czech Media
Bláhová, Kateřina ; Křeček, Jan (advisor) ; Nečas, Vlastimil (referee)
This master's thesis explores the relationship between news content and owners of print and online media publishers in the Czech Republic. In the recent decade, the Czech media scene has been subject to a phenomenon called oligarchisation, a process when vast most majority of international owners were gradually replaced by local media moguls who also do business in other sectors than the media. The theoretical part of the thesis looks at the media oligarchisation in the Central and Eastern Europe and associated threats to the standards of journalism and democracy per se. The empirical part offers a quantitative content analysis of year in review articles on 2019 and 2020. These articles were published in print and online newspapers in the five main media houses. The coding unit for analysis is an evaluative mention, i.e. only one part of each article, dedicated to a single event, name or trend. The resulting data is tested by a simple analysis of relative frequency, and is also subjected to Pearson's chi-square test. This latter examines the relationships of categorical variables. Subsequently, a correspondence analysis focuses on the most significant associations between media houses and variables of the analysed articles. The results of the analyses indicated that three of the five examined...
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Oligarchization of the Media and its Influence on the Ethics of Journalism
Mačí, Josef ; Moravec, Václav (advisor) ; Miessler, Jan (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with the problem of media oligarchization and its influence on the ethics of journalism. Based on the synthesis of existing theoretical concepts, a narrower definition of the terms oligarch and media oligarch is presented in the text. On this theoretical basis, the situation in 31 selected European countries from the point of view of media oligarchization is evaluated by comparing the methodologies of three media indicators - Freedom House's Freedom and the Media, Reporters Without Borders's Press Freedom Index and Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom's Media Pluralism Monitor. This is considered primarily a problem of post-communist and post-colonial countries, and the diploma thesis tests this assumption. The problem of ethics of journalistic work within the scope of media oligarchization is presented on a theoretical as well as practical level, based on a chronological comparison of ethical codes of three selected media groups - MAFRA, Vltava Labe Media and Czech News Center, which changed ownership from a multinational group to an oligarch or an oligarchic group.
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Reforms of the Ukrainian Energy Industry
Balahura, Milan ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Lídl, Václav (referee)
The energy sector of Ukraine is of strategic importance not only within the national economy, but is also significant from a European perspective, because it includes transit energy networks that are essential for a large part of Europe. The fundamental problem still remains low energy efficiency of the economy, obsolete infrastructure, dysfunctional system and the absence of major reforms. At the moment, another round of reforms is taking place under the influence of a rapprochement with the European Union, to modernize the sector and adapt it to European standards. This work describes the development of the sector and the reform efforts since independence until today with a particular focus on the gas sector and the period 2014 to 2017. This is particularly the developments in the energy market, pricing policies, availability, security and decentralization of the system. In addition, the work also focuses on the development of energy efficiency, the environment and renewable energy sources. Following on the theoretical basis (especially the theory of institutional economics) through analysis of described facts assesses developments in the reforms and their impact on the whole sector including evaluation of the role and influence of oligarchs in these reform attempts. In terms of reforms, four...
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Myths and Controversies: Ukrainian Volunteer Units in Donbas 2014-15
Mastný, David ; Zilynskyj, Bohdan (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
Ukrainian paramilitary volunteer units became a key to fight threats of the russo-separatist hybrid war and their activity could be strongly reflected in the outcome of combat operations. This case study examines a phenomenon of volunteer battalions including myths and controversies that accompany them. The paper defines and analyzes four most controversial issues that are connected with volunteer units and confronts them with reality. Furthermore, it deals with roots and origins of these controversies and examines consequences of problematic units on the security and political situation in Ukraine. These topics include a spread of radical nationalism, fascism and neo-Nazism in volunteer units, criminal activities of volunteer fighters , the role of religion in the volunteer movement and links between volunteer units and political parties or oligarchs and related problems such as financing.
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The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchy
Hájek, Jan ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Šír, Jan (referee)
The Abstract - The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchy Jan Hajek The thesis "The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchy" deals with the relationship between big business and the Russian state apparatus between 1987 and 2008. Since the beginning of the entrepreneurship in Russia during Gorbachev's reforms influential business structures started to develop. These structures then were able to dominate in the nineties a significant part of the Russian economy. That was partially caused by an unusually high degree of concentration of ownership structures growing under Michail Gorbachev's and Boris Yeltsin's governments. Important factors were as well natural resources as an easy source of income and the weakness of the state in creating and promoting a legal environment. Because of that some enterprising individuals were able to gain large fortunes that could be used to influence some policy decisions. Their influence peaked during the campaign for Yeltsin's re- election, when they even received some governmental posts. In that time the situation was closest to the oligarchy. Nevertheless within a short time their influence was reduced by mutual conflicts, the financial crises of 1998 and with Vladimir Putin becoming acting president at the end of 1999. Therefore the political influence of oligarchs was...
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