SURVEY OF THE PRESS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, 24-6-1993

by Jan Jarab

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

CESKY DENIK (right-wing) publishes a big critical article on George Soros under the title "The Dubious Personality of a Financier" - most of the material, however, consisting of quotations from the German tabloid Bild.

LIDOVA DEMOKRACIE (Catholic) informs on the first page about the prepared law on packaging, which would require the producer of packaging to recycle it. LD asks the Deputy Minister of Environment why such a law was not passed immediately after the law on toxic waste in 1991; the Deputy Minister blames the delay on the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. He also points out that this delay enabled many environmentally damaging technologies from Germany (where laws on packaging and recycling exist) to be imported to the CR. In several Czech towns a Czech private company, Korex, was put in charge of waste disposal; the company, however, intends to burn the toxic waste, which causes great concern among environmentalists.

The Czech Republic - announced another headline - has embarked on a tougher visa policy; from now on, visitors from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Yugoslavia and BOSNIA will require a visa. Croatians, however, will still be allowed visa-free entry.

LIDOVE NOVINY (liberal) publish an editorial in defense of Interior Minister Jan Ruml, who was severely attacked yesterday in Rude pravo by prominent left-wing ex-dissident Petr Uhl. "Uhl makes Ruml into a demon, and then he bravely defeats him," comment LN. "However, the Minister has been proposing a border which is a moderate version of what exists in Western Europe, and it is ridiculous - indeed, demagogic - to attribute such intentions to him which he has never expressed (i.e., of building another Iron Curtain).

Under the title "Drugs Exist - And They Will Remain" LN quote D.Novakova from the National Center of Health Support from her yesterday's press conference, who said that in a small sample of teenagers surveyed in Prague's industrial suburb, Kladno, more than 50% admitted having taken some drugs already. "This should teach a lesson to those who believe it is better not to speak about drugs," said Ms.Novakova. "Restriction itself does not solve anything." Ms.Novakova puts emphasis on preventive measures and supports the methadone program (which was started by Dr Presl after the revolution but had to be temporarily stopped). (Legalization was not mentioned in the article.)

LN also inform about a program called "The Friendly Alternative to Punishment for Teenagers", which has been created by volunteers to help teenagers who have become juvenile delinquents, members of street gangs etc. Because group therapy (not to speak about prison) can result in the creation o new gangs, help is offered on an individual basis. Every volunteer (usually a student of psychology) choses a "client" (juvenile delinquent) with whom he works on "anything that interests the client" three times a week for at least half a year. (The student, however, remains anonymous, and the delinquent is chosen on the basis that he is neither an alcoholic nor a drug addict.) Another alternative project should enable the city - through a curator - to bring "nonconventional punishment" of juvenile delinquents, i.e. that these should personally apologise to the person whose property they damaged, and help him remove the consequences, thus preventing the case from coming to court.

MLADA FRONTA DNES (centrist, independent) informs on the new measures the German Government will take to enforce the German border with the Czech Republic - infrared detectors, radars, plus an additional 5000 men.

PRACE (trade-union) informs that beginning with July 1st,1993, rents will be completely "liberalized" in a few categories of apartments - namely, for instance, the apartments inhabited by foreigners. (Landlords have been charging much higher rent from foreigners than from Czechs for a long time already, but only now they will receive a "carte blanche" to do so. However, no one was prosecuted for doing so until now, when it was technically illegal!)

RUDE PRAVO (left-wing). Headline: "The Picassos Remains in the Hands of the State." The article concerns yesterday's long awaited court decision about 30 famous modern paintings (including Picasso's famous Self-portrait of 1907 and several other classics) will not be returned to the heirs of Vincenc Kramar, a collector who dedicated the paintings to the state before his death in 1960. The heirs had claimed that the millionaire Kramar had acted under pressure from the Communist state; the court, however, decided against them. (Considering, undoubtedly, that the collector himself was a member of the Communist Party until his death, the court ruled that there is no evidence of Kramar's decision having been forced.)

TELEGRAF (right-wing) comments extensively on yesterday's press conference of the National Center of Health Support, which concentrated on problems of drugs and introduced a new preventive project called "Lighthouse". The authors of the project, writes Telegraf, are opposed to legalization.

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SURVEY OF SLOVAK PRESS by CTK News Agency

BRATISLAVA, June 24 (ÇTK) - Slovak newspapers today fucus on

Łubomír Dolgo 's resignation yesterday from the post of Deputy

Chairman of the ruling Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS)

and on his withdrawal from the movement.

The daily +Národná obroda+ directs attention to the fact

that Dolgo , who left his post as Slovak Privatisation Minister

June 15, is leaving the Slovak political scene for the second

time.

The first time was under the government of the Christian

Democratic Movement (KDH), when Dolgo had to quit his position

as the head of the Slovak Anti-Monopoly Office. Surely, it was

only a coincidence that that happened when the first wave of

large-scale privatisation was in full swing. After the new

parliamentary elections in June 1992, Dolgo returned to the

government to fill the post of Privatisation Minister.

Very soon, however, after he had implemented certain changes

in the privatisation process, Dolgo became the subject of sharp

criticism and endless inspections. Although the outcome of these

inspections did not show Dolgo was at fault, he did not defend

himself and just quit. "For what reason and for whose sake?" the

daily asks. The fact is that like the first round of the Dolgo

affair, the current second one also remains opaque to the

general public, it adds.

+Slovenský denník+, close to the opposition KDH, comments on

the Slovak National Party's (SNS) announcement yesterday that it

would not support a no-confidence vote on Health Minister Viliam

Sobońa in the Slovak Parliament.

The daily points out that at last week's second round of

talks between Slovakia's opposition parties, attended also by

SNS representatives, it was agreed that a second attempt to

dismiss Sobońa should be undertaken. However, shortly after this

the SNS assumed an ambiguous stand on Sobońa, which could be

attributed to flirting between the SNS and HZDS on a possible

two-party government coalition and maybe on an agreement to

initiate a quiet resignation by Sobońa and to replace him with

an SNS candidate.

The daily writes that a statement by HZDS Deputy Chairman

Roman Zelenay about the successful talks between the SNS and

HZDS, held in a "pleasant and friendly atmosphere", was a

continuation of the "parlour games" between the two parties. The

statement was followed by an SNS move which prevented Sobońa's

dismissal being discussed in parliament.

The daily believes that the SNS has thus shown its "true"

face and that this will necessaraly result in a stoppage or a

drop in the growing popularity it has registered lately.

+Slovenský denník+ carries an interview with KDH Chairman

Ján Çarnogurský, who comments on a series of flattering articles

about General Alojz Lorenc, the former Czechoslovak secret

police (StB) top official, which were published recently by the

daily +Republika+.

Çarnogurský says the editor-in-chief of the Slovak News

Agency (TA SR) daily +Republika+ has crossed the limits of

truth. "If he praised merely General Lorenc's mathematical or

managing abilities everything would have been alright," says

Çarnogurský. He adds, however, that with these articles the

editor-in-chief has actually rehabilitated the secret police and

has prepared fertile soil for the appearance of further

paeans to the communist past.

SNS parliament deputy Vladimír Mi kovský says on the same

topic in the daily +Smena+ that the articles about Lorenc were

not objective and that they caused the reader to ask how many

decorations--two or three--the General will be awarded.

Mi kovský says that, as far as he knows, the daily

+Republika+ will cease to exist in a few days. He condemns the

fact that the state news agency daily has published such

articles, adding that TA SR, which is funded with taxpayers

money provides "probably the lowest quality service in the whole

of Central Europe."

+Republika+ carries an interview with TA SR General Director

Du an Kleiman, who states that the articles about Lorenc were a

"personal journalistic initiative" of the editor-in-chief and

that they have nothing in common with the line of information

provided by +Republika+.