SURVEY OF THE PRESS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, 9-6-1993

by Jan Jarab

Daily newspapers surveyed: Cesky denik, Lidova demokracie, Lidove noviny, Mlada fronta dnes, Prace, Rude pravo, Svobodne slovo, Telegraf.

In alphabetical order:

CESKY DENIK (right-wing). Headline news: The Opposition Intends to Call for Resignation of Chief Prosecutor Setina. The article informs about the intention of Communist deputies to replace Setina - who was nominated by the ruling ODS - by a less partisan Chief Prosecutor; spokesmen for the coalition parties are quoted as saying that they "do not know of any serious reason why Setina should be replaced". (Interestingly enough, Setina's Communist critics do not mention among reasons for his replacement his proposal for an anti-migration law, which was turned down in January - if accepted, however, it would have meant a more severe restriction of freedom of travel INSIDE the country than was imposed during the Stalinist era, and unregistered visits by other Czech citizens could actually result in a jail sentence of 2 years. As there were obvious racist overtones to the proposal, Gypsy organizations have been calling for Setina's resignation since January; the reaction from the political mainstream has been, ho

wever, very mild, and the Communists did not ask for his resignation in connection with this issue.)

In an extensive interview for CD, Prime Minister V.Klaus speaks - among other things - about the Bosnian conflict. "I am afraid that military intervention at this stage would do more damage than good...An intervention would require a deep analysis of the situation and not just a superficial decision: these are the bad ones, the ones we have to beat, and here are the good ones we should help. I do not see a clear analysis from the West. I agree with Henry Kissinger who unequivocally refuses the idea that there is an aggression of one part of former Yugoslavia against the other. The whole initiative on the international scene has been based on such a paradigm - that it is a unilateral aggression. If this assumption does not hold true - and I am afraid there are many signals to this effect - then foreign intervention can not produce a solution."

LIDOVA DEMOKRACIE (Catholic). Headline news: "Next Year Students Will Have to Pay." So far the expenses for studies at Czech universities have been payed by the state.

LIDOVE NOVINY (liberal) bring information that the Czech ship, Otava, which has rescued 32 shipwrecked Somalis and was so far denied access to Aden and Djibouti, was finally allowed to enter Djibouti. J.Petranek reminds in an editorial that approximately 200 000 Vietnamese "boat people" drowned on the open sea in the last 20 years and captains of most ships were given instructions to ignore them. "In this context, we have to praise Captain Kettner of Otava," says Mr.Petranek.

MLADA FRONTA DNES (centrist, independent) informs on the first page - as do all the other daily newspapers - about the replacement of T.Kopriva by M.Stibral as Director of the state press agency, CTK. (Mr.Kopriva was nominated by the ODS after the last elections to replace Petr Uhl, a well-known former dissident journalist and political prisoner of the Communist regime. Both Uhl and Kopriva took part in the current competition for the post which resulted from a widespread mutiny of CTK professionals who complained of Mr.Kopriva's lack of qualifications for the job.) The new Director is a long-term CTK professional without political affiliation.

SVOBODNE SLOVO (centrist, ex-Socialist) comments on the decision of Prime Minister Klaus to start dialogue between Czech coalition parties with Sudetan German representatives. "We do not know when exactly the Prime Minister changed his previous view that no such dialogue should occur, but the timing - immediately after the 44th Sudetan German Days, where the claims of the Sudeten Germans were surprisingly supported by the Bavarian Premier and CSU leader Weigel - was extremely unfortunate," says Svobodne slovo.

TELEGRAF (conservative, close to Premier Klaus) informs that the Parliament will ask customs officials to make public the names of deputies who used their immunity to import goods from abroad without paying taxes.

The KDU (Christian-Democratic Union) spokesman is quoted as saying that his party, which belongs to the ruling right-of-center coalition, will not support the law banning CFCs as proposed by the Greens party. The Social Democrats, on the other hand, have expressed their support for the proposed legislation.

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SURVEY OF SLOVAK PRESS

By CTK News Agency

BRATISLAVA, June 9 (ÇTK) - Slovak newspapers today focus on

the current political crisis in Slovakia and on Slovak Premier

Vladimír Meçiar's negative role in the disunited state of the

Slovak political scene.

+Slovenský denník+, close to the opposition Christian

Democratic Movement (KDH), writes that Slovakia is currently

experiencing the deepest political crisis in its history.

The daily believes it was Meçiar who caused the crisis with

his incorrect political orientation. It is evident even now that

Meçiar's name will not be registered in the honour rolls of

Slovak history, the daily writes. It voices the view that the

Slovak premier lied when he said during the television programme

Kroky on Sunday that opposition journalists and opposition

politicians are questioning the results of the 1992

parliamentary elections.

"There exists a difference ... between questioning and being

bitterly disappointed by the results of the elections in

Slovakia," the daily writes. The premier should immediately

apologize before the television cameras to the journalists who

criticise his policies and to all representatives of opposition

parties and movements unless he wants to appear as a

contemptuous liar, the daily writes.

The independent daily +Narodná obroda+ comments on Meçiar's

behaviour during his visits last week to some Slovak towns,

characterising it as "an infectious Jake (the last secretary

general of the former Czechoslovak Communist party-ed)

syndrome."

"Although the premier, who 'was radiating optimism' during

his regular radio interview on June 4, said that at his meetings

with citizens he had been convinced that the government was

functional and that he would not believe statistics and public

opinion polls, he should not forget that he usually meets with

people of the same mood as himself," the daily writes. Besides,

it adds, one should not forget that journalists and public

officials are being thoroughly selected for meetings with the

premier.

+Nový ças+ comments that an agreement reached by Slovak

parliamentary opposition parties at their meeting Monday to push

through jointly their own candidates for the highest position in

the Slovak Supreme Inspection Office (NKů) represents "an

important psychological turning-point."

The fact that Jozef Stank, a candidate for the Democratic

Left Party (SDL) and currently an attaché in the Slovak Embassy

in Prague, will be proposed for the post of NKů chairman and the

candidates for the posts of deputy chairmen will come from the

KDH and the Slovak National Party (SNS) might be the first step

towards agreement on more serious questions, especially a

possible "broader coalition government," with which the

opposition is currently striving to replace Meçiar's one party

government (filled with members of the ruling Movement for a

Democratic Slovakia, HZDS-ed).

The same daily carries an interview with Július Binder,

director of the water management company constructing the

Gabçíkovo hydroelectric dam on the Danube. Binder says that if

the Slovak-Hungarian dispute over the controversial project sits

before the International Court of Justice in the Hague for five

years, it would cost Slovak taxpayers at least one billion

Slovak crowns. "We will have, for example, to pay lawyers

representing us as well as pay for translations, transport, our

own court, and the whole staff which would deal with the

matter," Binder says. He notes that three very experienced

British lawyers will represent Slovakia in the Hague and that

lawyers are not cheap anywhere in the world.

Representatives of the Együttélés (Co-existence) Hungarian

movement write in +Narodná obroda+ against the proposed

introduction of a bilingual system of education in Slovakia's

southern regions, which are populated primarily by Hungarians.

"If this alternative system is forced on us we will consider

it an attack on our education," says Pál Csáky, Slovak

parliament deputy for the Hungarian Christian Democratic

Movement (MKDH). "This contradicts all international conventions

and will cause not only domestic but international

conflict," he says.

Under the alternative system, worked out by the Slovak

Ministry of Education, at schools in these regions the social

sciences would be taught in Hungarian and natural sciences in

Slovak. Parents of pupils will decide whether or not their

children will attend these schools.