Global Voices

Czech Temelín Nuclear Power Plant became the target of worldwide backlash over a publicity stunt that saw several young women posing in swimsuits and hard hats as part of a supposed competition to win an internship.

The largest nuclear power station in Czech Republic invited Facebook users to select their next intern by “liking” their photo, but accusations of sexism soon followed. After Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle published an article about Temelín's competition, it was picked up by numerous international media. While posting photos of the girls, the UK's The Sun newspaper also reported on the international outrage, while American tech news site CNET used the case to show that “sexism has become quite the topic in the tech industry.”

The plant eventually removed the photos of the high-school graduates, declared that all participants had won the internship, and apologized: “The purpose of the competition was to promote technical education. But if the original vision raised doubts or concerns, we are very sorry.”

Czech experimental blog rychlofky, which documents social media content, took a screenshot of the apology post and commented:

Translation Original Quote
Temelín become famous! Their somewhat sexist competition of girls in swimsuits was featured on Time and CNN…
On their Facebook page (@ICTemelin), they somehow misplaced the competition, and instead there is something like a halfhearted apology. Moreover, they do not seem to understand that “looking good in a swimsuit” is a poor “qualifying criterion” for internships.
The plant's decision to take down the album not only removed the photos from Facebook, but also from media coverage that had embedded the album in their article instead of relying on screenshots.

Local TV channel Jihoceske had also published a video report on the models touring the power station during the competition's photoshoot. After Deutsche Welle embedded it in their article and the backlash began, Jihoceske made the YouTube video unavailable.

Not all reactions to the controversial competition have been negative. A German company which is a supplier to Temelín power plant tweeted out one of the photos that also shows some of their products: