FOB had already dealt with Guru Jára's affair with a series of four articles (here are the links: one, two, three and four) written four-handedly by Alessandro Amicarelli, FOB president, and Massimo Introvigne, editor of Bitter Winter. Pavel Hlavinka, associate professor at Palacký University, also wrote about Guru Jára declaring himself to be a disciple of his. This did not pass unnoticed by a zealous intolerant journalist who fomented a media campaign against the professor's “dangerousness” linked to a convicted felon (Guru Jára) and his “ cult,” with the result that Pavel Hlavinka has been “fired.”
Media are not courts: the case of the dismissal of Prof. Pavel Hlavinka under Czechia media pressure
A case where freedom of thought and belief, academic freedom and freedom of expression were the victims of the media
By Willy Fautré — In May of this year, an associate professor at the Palacký University in Olomouc was dismissed with a mere stroke of the pen after 29 years and 5 months of good and loyal service. Why?
Professor Pavel Hlavinka, born in 1971, started studying philosophy, political science, and psychology at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc. In 1996, he began lecturing on these subjects at the Faculty of Law of Palacký University and since 2003 he had held the position of associate professor.
He had never been subject to disciplinary measures by the university. He had even received an Award from the Palacký University nine years ago. For almost 30 years, there had never been any complaints by students or their parents and he had never been taken to court. He had given lectures in European universities and also on other continents. He was a prolific writer about philosophy. Just to name a few of his works:
Daseinsanalysis – the Encounter of Philosophy and Psychotherapy (2001, 2008), History of Philosophy (1st ed. 2008, 2nd ed. 2021),
French Phenomenology and existential analysis /Francouzska fenomenologie a existencialni analyza (2010),
Goodness and Virtue from the Perspective of Ethical and Religious Concepts (for which he received the Rector’s Award at Palacký University in 2016),
An outline of the history of the origin of the phenomenological approach (2017)
The Gospel of Guru Jára According to Pavel (2020), a monograph of 600 pages about the Czech citizen, Jaroslav Dobes, known as Guru Jára, practising and teaching tantric yoga.
In 2019, his paper “Tantric Traditions in the Spiritual Teaching of Guru Jára“ was published by The Journal of Cesnur founded by Dr Massimo Introvigne, the managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and former “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In the abstract of his paper, he presented himself as “both an academic and a disciple of the Guru Jára Path.
The court case of Jaroslav Dobeš and Barbora Pláškováh
Jaroslav (Jára) Dobeš, the founder of the Guru Jára Path, and his main co‐worker, Barbora Plášková, were sentenced in the Czech Republic in 2014 to ten and nine and a half years respectively later reduced to five and half and five years) on charges of sexual abuse of female followers committed under the pretext of Tantric rituals in the Czech Republic. In 2024, Czech judges recognized with a final decision that, having been detained in the Philippines in camps for illegal immigrants pending decisions on their asylum requests there, for a time longer than the Czech sentences, after having been deported back to their home country they no longer had prison terms to serve and were thus free. (Source: The Journal of Cesnur)
Media campaign against Professor Pavel Hlavinka
For more than a decade, media outlets in the Czech Republic have published a lot of sensational reports about Guru Jára and his main co‐worker Barbora Plášková but Prof. Pavel Hlavinka has never been involved in any of their activities for which they were sentenced to prison terms.
The Guru Jara's case is closed. Jaroslav (Jára) Dobeš and Barbora Plášková have served their prison sentences. She has gone back to the Philippines to take care of her own child while he has gone to another country. This should have been the end of the story; but it wasn’t.
Cult issues are a godsend for the media. A Czech journalist discovered a disciple of Jaroslav Dobeš: Professor Pavel Hlavinka teaching for almost 30 years at the Palacký University in Olomouc. She presented the Professor as a risk for his female students, put the board of the Palacký University in an uncomfortable position in the eye of her media cyclone and fuelled her campaign to such an extent that it was also reported on the Czech TV ‘CNN Prima News.’
Cult-like stories sell well in the media, but they are not to be used as courts and in the case of Professor Pavel Hlavinka, it cannot even be said that he should benefit from the presumption of innocence as there has never been any complaint against him.
The fabricated dismissal of the Professor by the University
Universities and schools, whether public or private, are always afraid of events that might damage their image and their reputation. The Palacký University in Olomouc was no exception in this regard.
Timeline:
Everything happened in a few days on the eve of the end of the current academic year.
19 May 2025: A journalist contacted Professor Hlavinka by email, asking him several challenging questions about the Guru Jara Path, but he chose not to answer. At the same time, she contacted the university authorities for her upcoming article which would put the university on the radar of the Czech media.
20 May 2025: At 9:30am, Professor Hlavinka received a phone invitation from Dean Václav Stehlík for a personal meeting, which took place at 12 pm in his office. The law faculty union representative Petr Podrazil who is meant to defend the staff of the university was also present. Both of them immediately announced him that his courses would be cancelled for the next academic year, in effect placing him without work. This was an intelligent but tricky way of avoiding prosecution for unfounded or illegal dismissal. They advised him to accept a severance of five months’ salary and terminate his employment by mutual agreement. His academic career at Palacký University, spanning 30 years, was simply ended like that.
24-25 May 2025: During sensational television broadcasts of CNN Prima News Professor, Hlavinka was publicly exposed, being portrayed as a danger for his students. The report was filmed directly in front of the university building, contained interviews of students and featured videos of the Professor found online. Other Czech media outlets re-published and amplified the original source, destroying the image and the reputation of Professor Hlavinka while suggesting the police should pay attention to his case. This was not the case as there was and there had never been any complaint against him during his teaching career.
27 May 2025: Professor Hlavinka accepted the severance imposed by the university and signed the termination agreement dated 21 May...
Professor Hlavinka, 54 years old, is now unemployed. He has little to no chance to find a similar job in another university due to the damage caused by the media to his person and his image. He was already turned down for a job since then. His financial future is not rosy and he is alone to take care of a sick 86-year-old mother.
In this case, freedom of thought, freedom of belief, academic freedom, and the right to privacy have also fallen victim to a form of sensationalist journalism driven more by the pursuit of headlines and commercial gain than by concern for truth or the human cost involved.
Source: HRWF
