Government to assess amendment to muzzle law

The country’s caretaker government will assess an amendment aimed at revising the so-called muzzle law which bans the Czech media from revealing information such as records of police wiretappings or the identities of victims in criminal cases. The amendment was put forward by several MPs: the Green Party’s Kateřina Jacques, Social Democrat Frantíšek Bublan and Civil Democrat Frantíšek Laudát. The aim, the authors of the legislation said, is to make it possible to report information when it was clearly in the public’s interest. The muzzle law, which has been in effect since April 1, has come under wide criticism from both the media and media experts in the Czech Republic and abroad, who have charged that it restricts the freedom of the press.