Ztohoven

Ztohoven is an award-winning Czech guerrilla artist collective known for its pranks. The most well-known of these pranks - and the one which led to six of its members being prosecuted - was the June 17, 2007 "Media Reality" incident, in which they hacked into a weather forecast being broadcast on Česká televize and inserted a digital image of a nuclear explosion and a mushroom cloud on a live panoramic shot of the Krkonoše Mountains. This led to the January 2008 announcement that six Ztohoven members would be prosecuted for scaremongering and spreading false information; they faced prison sentences of up to three years. On March 25, 2008, A Czech judge dismissed the scaremongering charges against the artists, citing public amusement rather than public unrest, but the prosecutor said the state would consider an appeal. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27arts-HACKERARTIST_BRF.html Hacker Artists Cleared in Czech TV Stunt - New York Times - March 27, 2008] ]

In December 2007, the Czech National Gallery awarded Ztohoven the NG 333 prize for works unrelated to the "Media Reality" incident; this included CZK 333 000. [ [http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,526688,00.html A Czech War of the Worlds: Mushroom Cloud Pranksters to Stand Trial - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News ] ]

ee also

*Broadcast signal intrusion

References