SURVEY OF THE PRESS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, 1-7-1993

by Jan Jarab

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

All Czech newspapers inform on the first page about the fact that the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic were both accepted as members of the Council of Europe. Hungary abstained in the case of Slovakia, while the small Alpine principality of Lichtenstein abstained in the case of the Czech Republic because of the Czech refusal of the Lichtenstein prince's claims for property in the Czech Republic (which had been confiscated already in 1918!).

CESKY DENIK (right-wing). Headline: "Slovakia Threatens to Block Refugees". The Slovak Interior Minister J.Tuchyna announced yesterday that Slovakia will not accept refugees returned from the Czech Republic or from a third country (Germany) through the Czech Republic, so that these refugees or people deported from Germany according to the new asylum law in G. would have to remain in the CR. Slovak Premier Meciar refused the proposals of Czech Interior Minister Ruml to establish a standard border regime between the CR and Slovakia; the Slovak Government has not responded to an official letter by Czech Premier Klaus who urged it to help resolve the stalemate. Mr.Ruml declared yesterday that he insists on the standard border regime despite the fact that the Klaus cabinet withdrew the issue from its yesterday's program.

Another article on the first page explores the connection of the new director of the Czech Radio, Vlastimil Jezek, to the liberal OH (Civic Movement), which was close to President Havel and dominant in the last Government but suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1992 elections. (JJ: for the Czech right wing, OH has become a favorite target of an "anti-Communist" witch-hunt, which is based on the impenetrable logic that some of the leading dissidents and human-rights defenders in OH were reform Communists in 1968; reform Communists are the most dangerous Communists of all; and whoever associates with them in OH becomes an even more dangerous type, a crypto-Communist. It is particularly ironic in the context of the fact that quite a few of the leading personalities of the ruling right-of-center coalition were also in the Communist Party - the popular Minister of Economy, V.Dlouhy, having been there until 1990.) CD claimed yesterday that Mr.Jezek had been the campaign manager for OH; today it publishes his den

ial, but counters that "according to people who met him in 1992, Jezek gave his apartment at disposal to OH for the election campaign".

CD also informs that the committees of Parliament rejected yesterday a proposal of a law which would make prostitution illegal; the proposal has been put forward by a deputy of the ruling ODS.

LIDOVA DEMOKRACIE (Catholic) informs about the official letter of Czech Premier Klaus to the Bavarian Prime Minister Stoiber. Mr.Klaus informs that Mr.Stoiber's speech at the Sudetan German Days created "a very negative response" from the Czech public and that the Bavarian demand (that the CR should abolish the post-war decrees of President Benes, who confiscated German property) is unacceptable.

Petr Uhl, a Czech journalist known as a dissident and political prisoner under the Communist regime, has applied for Slovak citizenship yesterday at the Slovak embassy in Prague in protest against the Czech citizenship law, which - contrary to the more liberal Slovak law - is unconstitutional (says P.Uhl). He does not intend, however, to resign on the Czech citizenship. "It is possible that I will be stripped of the Czech citizenship. If that happens, I will fight for my Czech citizenship in court. According to the Declaration of Human Rights, nobody can be stripped of a citizenship against his will," says Mr.Uhl.

LIDOVE NOVINY (liberal). The article "Drug Addiction: A Vicious Circle" reveals why drug addicts go to jail: even though drug use in itself is not a crime, production of an illegal drug - even for strictly personal use - is a crime. A young addict described only as "Martin" says: "I needed the drug and I did not want to buy it on the street, because I do not trust those people, so I produced it myself." Also, if a court sentences the addict to "protective therapy" (i.e., forced abstention), a positive finding in his urine is qualified as "contempt of court" and leads to a jail sentence. Dr.Presl from Drop-In Foundation, which runs a drug-replacement program (originally on methadone, but now its import has been banned), comments: "If a person seeks an illegal drug, he comes into contact with criminals. If he produces it himself, he becomes a criminal himself."

LN also reveal that several prosecutors - including members of the General Prosecutor's office - had engaged in 1990 in Happyline, a financial game in which success was directly linked to the participant's capacity to convince people (also through his socially prestigious position) to give money on the "line". These prosecutors have earned thousands of dollars in the game, and although the game was not illegal at that time (it was outlawed on Jan.1,1992), it is hardly a suitable way of behavior for a prosecutor, say Lidove noviny.

MLADA FRONTA DNES (centrist, independent). Headline: "War Veterans Seem to Suffer from Desert Fever". The spokesman for the Czech veterans from the Gulf War, P.Zelenicky, rejected yesterday's statement of the Czech Army Chief of Staff that the Czech veterans are all right. On the contrary, said Mr.Zelenicky, several Czech veterans suffer from similar symptoms as the British ones: they have lost hair, teeth and weight. British experts blame the symptoms in their soldiers on chemical weapons, radioactive contamination or gases from the burning oil fields. Mr.Zelenicky complains that after the return from the war, the Czech veterans had only one medical check-up; no follow-up resulted, although some had already started losing their teeth, which "was blamed on the U.S. coca-cola we drank in the Gulf."

John Hasek, a well-known Canadian journalist and philanthropist of Czech origin who sustained critical injuries in Western Bosnia, was transported by helicopter to Prague yesterday. His condition remains extremely serious, writes MFD.

PRACE (trade-union) brings reactions of the public to the Baghdad bombing, which are very mixed - although there is no sympathy for Saddam Hussein, many respondents view the U.S. attack as "evil for evil, terrorism for terrorism"; more than by the attack itself, however, they are disppointed by President Havel's support for the attack. (JJ: Premier Klaus, on the other hand, has said: "Could you imagine what it would look like if we reacted in this way in our controversies with Slovakia?")

In an extensive report from the small town of Josefov, two journalists write that most of pubs and restaurants in this town refuse to serve Romany (Gypsy) citizens, or even those who are married to a Romany. The journalists, one of whom was a Romany, was also not served in two of the restaurants. The town has more than 300 Romany citizens, who are socially well adapted and create no problems; however, even the mayor of the town is being attacked by some local citizens for treating the Romanies as equal.

"Commerce Triumphs Over Conversion" is the title of an article concerning the Czech arms production and exports. PRACE praises the strategy of the Minister for Economy, V.Dlouhy, who has decided to stop the conversion of military production to civilian (which had been started after the 1989 Revolution) and "assume again our position on the world market".

RUDE PRAVO (left-wing) informs that the split of the Communist Party continues; after the "reformist" Party of Democratic Left, a "centrist" group, the "Left Bloc", is leaving the "fundamentalist" core of the party which triumphed at last weekend's congress.