Media criticize penal code

The Czech media have come out strongly against the new penal code, approved by the lower house on Tuesday, saying it would curtail freedom of speech. The country’s leading dailies, magazines and tv stations criticize an article in the bill that bans the publishing of information from recorded police wiretappings, saying that it would infringe on their right to provide information. A dozen editors in chief have signed a joint petition to the upper house, asking senators to reject the new penal code and get the controversial article debated by media experts. The Justice Ministry which drafted the new penal code has dismissed the criticism. If approved by the Senate and signed by the president the new penal code would come into force in 2010, replacing the current law from 1961.