Photo: Vít Hassan for PrahaIN.cz/Jan Tuna
INTERVIEW: Journalist and YouTuber Jan Tuna received a pre-trial summons from AmRest, which operates KFC in the Czech Republic. “I will not be intimidated. I stand behind my work 1000 percent and I have already gotten used to the fact that when someone has butter on their head, they try to intimidate,” he says in an interview for the PrahaIN.cz website.
You have received a pre-suit summons from AmRest, the operator of KFC in the Czech Republic. That probably didn’t surprise you, did it?
Not at all. I laughed at that. The despair. To be precise, it is a call for the removal and dissemination of audiovisual recordings. And it was sent by the director of global development and former executive of AmRest, Pavel Škvára, through a law firm.
AmRest has been making a dead chicken, I’m not saying a bug, but a chicken, for almost two months now. It is an expression of sheer desperation. Instead of facing this, they apologized to the citizens of the Czech Republic and announced what measures they will take and how they will compensate the people who had problems, they are silent and do not communicate with anyone at all. Not only with me, but also with other journalists. Basically they are mocking people who have had problems, because we know of a lot of their customers who have reported health problems, but KFC tells them that everyone’s digestive tract is different, that they just didn’t like the food. At the same time, we have reports from a huge number of people, including children, who had problems. Some ended up in the intensive care unit, they had to be taken by ambulance.
As you said that you were not surprised by the pre-trial summons, you did not receive it for the first time in your life.
No, I’m used to it. I will not be intimidated. I stand behind my work 1000 percent and I’ve already gotten used to the fact that when someone has butter on their head, they try to intimidate: pre-lawsuit calls, one, the other, some then file a lawsuit, but in the end, right before the court, some withdraw it and want to come to an agreement. Sometimes it goes to court. During my almost 32 years of media and journalistic practice, I won all the courts and those who sued me ended up having to pay my costs. Just last week, I received such a verdict in another case that I have been dealing with for several years. Director of the day care center for children and adults with disabilities Helias Ústí n. Labem Drahomíra Brožová Jr. (Kučerová) wanted an apology and 300,000 crowns. The court rejected it in full, and on the contrary, according to the first-instance judgment, she must pay me almost 100,000 crowns in legal costs. For example, the company BubbleStar, which operated the Bubbleology network in the Czech Republic and Central Europe, also lost, they lost their entire franchise because we proved that they were lying about the composition of the drinks, they wanted 100 million. Or the owner of the company Marlenka.
In the time I’ve been doing this job, this is far from the first such challenge. It might work for some, but it has the opposite effect on me. On the contrary, I devote myself to the case even more and more deeply.
Interestingly, if I’m not mistaken, the subpoena is not about the alleged tainted chicken claim itself, but about the video of you confronting a high-ranking person at AmRest.
Yes, that’s right. It’s not about endangering life and health, but about the fact that we filmed one of their top managers. When we arrived at the AmRest headquarters and were waiting at the front desk to get their statement, he suddenly appeared there and started talking to us. He refused to introduce himself, which I have never encountered before. And now he’s upset that we showed him. At the same time, we did not go anywhere, we reported normally and were allowed inside. Until we found out who he was after filming, he was a no name for us. He just said he was in charge of KFC. So it is legitimate to ask him about the company’s practices. I am surprised that a company that has a profit of more than half a billion, apart from the fact that, according to the testimony, things are happening there that threaten the health and lives of people, does not even have a crisis communication. Something tells me that this will probably be written in the communication, marketing and media textbooks. Chapter: How not to advance! And what never to do!
In addition to published reports, you also share funny collages and more. It is specifically stated in the pre-lawsuit notice that you refrain from using content based on already published records (collages, memes…).
That’s on the same level as if they wanted to ban me from going to the bathroom after eating KFC. It’s nonsense. I personally haven’t made any memes, I don’t have time for that. But even if I did create them, it’s not illegal. But maybe I’ll start right now. For now, I just share them and enjoy it, my Facebook, Instagram and e-mail are full of it every day.
What exactly is your goal? If something like this was happening, KFC has an opportunity to acknowledge the mistake and start rebuilding it entirely. Or do you rather expect the Danish model, when all branches were closed?
The main thing is that these practices end. That’s what I’m all about. However, according to many testimonies, they last for many years and are across the entire Czech Republic. I don’t want to say that it should be an outright standard, but something close to a standard. It is not one or two restaurants, but a long-term system. Given the way things are going and they are communicating or not communicating, I feel that no other scenario than the Danish one is possible. Where, on the one hand, the state veterinary administration intervened and the American KFC took away their license. As a result, this damages the KFC brand the most. Not that it’s being talked about, but what’s going on there. I am very glad that MP Tomáš Zdechovský took it to the floor of the European Parliament, questioned it, and the European Commission, which is supposed to solve everything on a pan-European basis, began to deal with it. That’s great. It has to be addressed. Other than AmRest doing a dead chicken and paying for a huge advertising campaign across major media outlets, which then don’t report it more than necessary. Or that there will be some influencers and YouTubers here and there making various videos about how it is now safe to eat KFC because they will be careful now.
Again, I read that it is suspicious that you started the case before the elections. Perhaps I will give the context for the readers that the supplier of chickens for KFC is Andrej Babiš’s Vodňanské kure.
(laughter) Drowning straws are grasped. These anonymous posts and comments are absurd. It has nothing to do with the election, even if it is related to who will be the prime minister here. I received the first message about this case exactly on June 4 of this year. I was very busy at the time and didn’t know if it was stupid. Only then did the news come out that they had closed all KFC restaurants in Denmark. At that moment I thought to myself that it probably wouldn’t be complete nonsense and that there would probably be something to it.
That’s what I was going to ask. At what point did you decide you were going to do it? Was it Denmark?
Yes. A lot of people write me daily with topics for reports, and until then I would never have thought that such a large international chain could have such practices. I thought it was under very strict control and not some no name kebab or Asian restaurant. But Denmark showed me that it doesn’t have to be complete nonsense. So I checked that the videos I received from Jablonec nad Nisou were from an earlier date than the news about the closing of restaurants in Denmark. If it was more recent, it would be possible that some disgruntled employee got inspired and fixed it. But it wasn’t like that, and it showed me that there would be something to it. Then several months of work began.
How do you think Andrej Babiš perceives this case?
He definitely perceives her. I am very glad that the State Agricultural and Food Inspection is honestly dealing with this. Over the years that I have been working on food safety and quality, I know that whenever we had a finding, the SZPI took it up thoroughly and consistently, drawing sanctions from it. SZPI falls under the Ministry of Agriculture and acts really honestly. He has been in charge of fast food only since this January. Now we have a prime minister here for a while longer who has no conflict of interest, no food business. But we all know who is the main supplier of chicken to KFC. It is Vodňanské chicken from the Agrofert concern of Andrej Babiš. I don’t think there is a bigger buyer of chicken in the Czech Republic than KFC. I even have unverified information that they have a special hall there just for KFC chickens. If it happened by chance, I wonder if there will be a phone call, a knock on the control authorities, so that the authorities don’t focus on it so consistently. We all know how Andrej Babiš swore to his children and grandchildren that he would not interfere with the independence of the newspapers and media he bought. And of course it turned out to be a lie.
Finally, I will ask, when you were filming and buying KFC, did you eat it?
Yes, unfortunately. On the first shoot, when I didn’t know how flat it was, we bought something as a prop and then the cameraman and I ate it because we were hungry. And what happened the next day, I experienced at most in the Balkans, maybe not even there. The cameraman also had intestinal problems. Anyway, when we released the first report, I received information that in some restaurants they took measures immediately, but a little different than any of us would have expected. Supposedly there is a photo of me and instructions to call the manager immediately when I arrive. And only he is supposed to prepare food for me, if I happened to order it. I’m supposed to get the biggest and best piece of chicken. Well… I am telling them that I will never eat any chicken there again. It is said that in some restaurants they also began to take away the phones of part-timers and employees so that they would not record any practices. Allegedly, there is a fear that Tuna will put his own person there, who will infiltrate there, so that he cannot film anything. It is said that in some restaurants in Prague, they even have a ban on accepting new part-timers, so that by chance it is not someone from me. This is information that comes to me from employees. I didn’t verify them. Yet. And AmRest and KFC are silent.
The PrahaIN.cz server also approached AmRest with a request for an interview. She has not responded yet.
