It is one of the Czech Republic's most controversial and widely read social-political magazines; its print circulation of 60,000 copies (as of January, 2010) reaches approximately 270,000 readers.

[4][5] Its first editor-in-chief, Petr Hájek and a group of promising, like-minded Czech journalists established its combination of political news journal and life style magazine.

Hájek's ideas and format were vindicated[6] as Reflex gradually created its own niche within an expanding and increasingly competitive market for Czech periodicals.

He was replaced by Pavel Šafr, former editor-in-chief of the newspapers Mladá fronta DNES and Lidové noviny: from 2010, Bílek served Reflex as an external editor.

[14] Reflex has been described as conservative and anti-leftist; its 20th anniversary issue included a manifesto against left-wing ideology and Czech Social Democratic Party politics.

Regular Reflex contributor Jiří X. Doležal campaigned for the decriminalization of small growers and users of cannabis, and organised an annual contest through the magazine.

[19][20] In 2001, Zelený Raoul, a Reflex satirical comic strip illustrated by Štěpán Mareš, showed the former Social-democratic minister Karel Březina[21] in a naked sexual embrace with his wife, the writer Bára Nesvadbová.

Copies of the magazine sold unusually fast: this led to speculation in the major national media (Czech Television, Blesk, and Mladá fronta DNES)[22][23] that the company's management had tried to buy the entire print run to avoid public exposure.

In 2009, the magazine published a report describing Paroubek's election campaign as an attempt to employ his private life as a part of political marketing.

[33][34] The editor-in-chief of Reflex, Pavel Šafr, wrote: "we have depicted Mr. Rath as a combination of a clown and a dictator, as a cross-breed of Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin.

The magazine's cover showed Bém with a pig's snout and the article was illustrated with a photomontage of him with a rolled banknote and a line of white powder on a table.