Between the Lines, or The Media Don’t Always Tell the Truth

An educational programme for teenagers combining the show Putin’s Agents with interactive workshops run by artists, journalists, and education experts. Between the Lines opens during the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 seasons in Prague and Ústí nad Labem.

This unique project broaches some potentially explosive contemporary topics such as the infiltration of the Czech public space by Russian secret agents, media manipulation, fake news, and the consequences of disinformation campaigns.

The programme consists of three main parts. First, Putin’s Agents the show is performed, followed by a debate with the audience, eventually turning into workshops with relevant experts. The strong impression left by the show is combined with real fact-work and content reflection.

The show Putin’s Agents is remarkable for its interactive form. It is a unique combination of theatre and film, so-called live cinema. Based on the story of Robert Rachardžo, the only revealed and publicly-known sleeping agent in the Czech Republic, and with the help of live shooting and editing, a film is made in real time documenting how easily secret services may interfere with our lives. The intense experience of the show is then processed in a follow-up debate with the project’s creative team.

Four workshops follow the debate. One is run by our technical team, three others by renowned personalities of the Czech media and educational scene: Ondřej Kundra from Respekt weekly; Bob Kartous, the spokesman for Czech Elves, and Jaroslav Spurný from Respekt weekly.

The programme Between the Lines may be utilised as a complementary element of media education, civics, or history classes. Should you be interested in becoming part of it, do not hesitate to contact us.

In 2020, Between the Lines was introduced in testing edition at Jatka78 in Prague on September 14, 2020. Next runs were put on n autumn 2021 in Prague and Ústí nad Labem, for more than 520 participants.

In spring 2021, when all live events were banned due to pandemic, we developed and introduced the online version of the project.

Project partners are Jatka78 (Prague), KULT (Ústí nad Labem) and UFFO (Trutnov).

The project is being supported by the Open Society Fund Prague from the Active Citizens Fund. The programme promotes citizens’ active participation in the public life and decision making and builds capacities of civil society organizations. The Active Citizens Fund is financed from the EEA and Norway Grants.

Our thanks also go to the Czech Ministry of Culture and Prague 7 council.

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Creators and collaborators