Copyright (c) 2010 Radio Prague (Cesky Rozhlas 7 - Radio Praha)
News Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
By: Christian Falvey
* The government has formally approved a proposal to limit the immunity
of senators and members of Parliament.
* The Central Register of Debtors has asked the police to investigate
Interior Minister Radek John over allegations of corruption.
* A survey suggests that the new party TOP 09 has taken a large leap in
voter preference since parliamentary elections.
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Government approves reduction of legislators' immunity
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Meeting for its first formal session on Wednesday, the Czech government
formally approved a proposal to limit the immunity of senators and
members of Parliament. The idea was one of the initial changes that the
coalition agreed to after elections. The proposed constitutional
amendment would, if passed by Parliament, limit the immunity of
legislators to their terms of office.
Speaking after the meeting, Prime Minister Petr Necas said one of the
ministries had not yet submitted their first draft policy statement by
the deadline. He denied that it was the transport minister Vit Barta,
who is away on holiday, and told reporters only that they would be
surprised to learn which minister it was.
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Central Registry of Debtors files for police investigation of Interior
Minister John
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The Central Register of Debtors has asked the police to investigate
Interior Minister Radek John over allegations of corruption. The charge
relates to overpriced contracts signed between the publishing company
Ora Print, which Mr John ran for a number of years, and the insurance
company VZP and the state forestry company Lesy CR. According to an
investigation by the news website Aktualne.cz, Ora Print charged and
was paid up to 18 times the standard price for magazines and cookbooks
published for the companies between 2002 and 2010. In its complaint,
the register also asked that the case not be handled by the usual
police divisions due to concerns of bias within the Ministry of the
Interior. Mr John has denied personal involvement in the charges in the
past.
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Press: Thieves break into Czech army HQ
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Thieves broke into the general staff of the Czech army last week, Mlada
fronta Dnes reported. A spokesman for the general staff told the
newspaper that unknown persons had reached the first floor of the
army's headquarters, which includes the office of Chief of Staff
Vlastimil Picek, last Thursday night. However, he refused to say
whether the intruders had entered Lieutenant General Picek's office, or
what exactly was stolen. The army is refusing to say any more about the
matter while a police investigation is ongoing.
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Poll: TOP 09 surges ahead in popularity
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An internet survey conducted by the polling agency SANEP suggests that
the new parliamentary party TOP 09 has taken a large leap in voter
preference since elections to the Chamber of Deputies in May. According
to the survey, the party would receive 22.8% of the vote if the
elections were held today, compared to their real election result of
16.7%. The Social Democratic Party maintained its position while the
Civic Democrats improved their standing slightly by one point to 21.1%.
Preference for the Communist Party and Public Affairs fell by one point
in each case, and no other party made it over the 5% threshold required
for seats in Parliament. SANEP says that the poll shows that the
right-wing parties have maintained considerable popularity and trust in
the month and a half since elections were held.
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Constitutional Court rules in favour of woman whose child was taken by
the lower courts
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The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of a young woman whose
child was taken from her by the courts soon after birth. The ruling
stated that the lower courts had not provided clear rationale for why
the child had been put into institutionalised care. The mother had
apparently had a conflict with hospital personnel after failing to
attend prenatal checkups and refused to deal with state authorities or
use modern means of communication. The Constitutional Court stated on
Wednesday that the actions of the lower court had been excessive, as
the mother was not given the chance to prove that she would be capable
of caring for the child. The child has now been in institutional care
for roughly a year and a circuit court will now decide whether she can
be permanently entrusted to the care of her mother.
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Chinese city to purchase Czech Expo pavilion
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The Chinese city of Huzhou has expressed interest in purchasing the
Czech pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, the Czech Press Agency
has reported. The prefecture-level city of roughly 2.5 million
apparently wants to cover all costs to relocate the building to a
lakeside municipal zone, where it would stand at the centre of a
tourist area. No price has been confirmed. The Czech pavilion has been
among the more popular sites at the Shanghai expo, with 3.7 million
people having visited it so far, or 13 percent of the total number of
visitors.
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Project to introduce English words in other primary school subjects
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English words and phrases may be introduced in primary schools the
coming years in other subjects. Experts from the Education Department
of Brno's Masaryk University are currently preparing a test project
that would use English terminology in such classes as maths or
geography. Teachers in trial schools will begin trying out the idea
from September. The project was made possible by a 15 million crown
grant from European funds and will involve 130 teachers and 2000 pupils
from three regions of the Czech Republic.
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TOP 09 approves Tuma to lead the ballot
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The Prague committee of TOP 09 has unanimously approved former head of
the central bank Zdenek Tuma to lead the party's ballot list in local
elections this fall. The position at the top of the ballot effectively
makes Mr Tuma the party's candidate for mayor of Prague. Finance
Minister Miroslav Kalousek, also of TOP 09, also said that he counts on
the former bank governor to sit on his economic team. Zdenek Tuma
served as governor of the Czech National Bank from 2000 until June of
this year, more than half a year before the end of his term of office.
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Lobkowicz opposes sale of family palace housing German embassy
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Jiri Lobkowicz has told the Czech Press Agency that he opposes plans to
sell Lobkowicz Palace to the German state or exchange it for another
building. The Lesser Town palace currently houses the German embassy in
Prague. Last year, Berlin made it clear that it would like to purchase
the building and give the Czech Republic the former seat of the U.S.
embassy in Berlin, which is now unused; the current Czech embassy in
Berlin is in need of refurbishment. Mr Lobkowicz's noble family
considered the 18th century palace its primary seat until 1927, when it
was acquired by the Czechoslovak state. He said that he understood that
in modern history, especially in 1989, it became a place that went down
into the memory of thousands of Germans fleeing to the West, however,
history neither started nor ended in 1989.
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Organisers of P!nk concert face fine for breaching noise levels
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The organisers of Tuesday's concert of the American singer Pink in
Prague's Synot Tip Arena may pay a fine for exceeding noise limits. The
Prague Hygienic Station said it registered noise levels 20 decibels
higher than the permissible daytime rate, and the organising company,
Live Nation, could thereby face a of hundreds of thousands of crowns.
The station is also filing an administrative lawsuit against the venue
itself, as it is zoned only as a sports stadium. The owners of the
stadium have not commented on the matter. Live Nation has been fined
200,000 crowns for noise level violations at concerts of Madonna and
Depeche Mode.
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Weather
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Conditions are expected to be mostly sunny and hot over the coming
days, with temperatures of up to 34o Celsius.
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Articles posted on www.radio.cz today
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Current Affairs
Loss of Mucha art work likely to hit small Moravian town hard
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Parts of Czech painter Alphonse Mucha's work the Slav Epic will be
carefully crated up on Monday as movers start taking it from its
current home in the town of Moravsky Krumlov to Prague. The late
artist's family is against this step, and is still fighting a legal
battle in an effort to block it. But what significance does the loss of
the 20-canvass masterpiece have for the small town of Moravsky Krumlov,
which has housed it since the 1950s?
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130019
Current Affairs
Czech police assist on Croatian coast
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Croatia's Dalmatian coast has long been the number one destination for
Czech tourists during the summer months and as a result, three years
ago, the Croatian government offered Czech police the opportunity to
cooperate in key areas. Although they have no authority on their own
and do not carry firearms, they are able to assist their Croatian
counterparts in communication with Czech tourists in cases of theft or
in traffic accidents.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130017
Current Affairs
Czech noble slams mooted sale of historic palace to Germany
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A Czech noble has weighed into ongoing talks about whether the Czech
state should sell one of Prague's Baroque architectural masterpieces to
its current tenants: the German embassy. For the Germans, the building
is more than a 17th century architectural jewel, it is also part of
their recent history.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130016
Czechs in History
Jaroslav Preiss: banking and business colossus of inter-war
Czechoslovakia
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The name Jaroslav Preiss does not create many ripples when it is thrown
out today. Perhaps one Czech in a hundred could identify who he was.
But at the birth of Czechoslovakia and in the 1920s and 1930s, Preiss
was an economic and business colossus and contributed to making the
country into a major industrial player between the wars. Chris
Johnstone looks at the life of the controversial figure.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130011
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