Military commando team raids offices at Czech TV

The Czech defence Minister Alexandr Vondra, has suspended from office the head of the Czech military police and two high-level commanders over an unprecedented incident on Friday at the headquarters of public broadcaster Czech TV. Early in the evening - as the station aired its primetime news broadcast - nine masked and heavily armed members of a military command unit forced their way into the news building, pushing past security guards and jumping turnstiles.

Photo: CTK

In the ensuing raid several offices were stormed and then searched for five hours for documentation in connection with a legal case related to the former military intelligence head Miroslav Krejčík – information that has been de-classified. The raid focussed on the office of one reporter and documentation, computers and other items were removed.

Criticism of the raid was quick to follow, with many, including the defence minister himself calling the manner of the raid “stupid”. The commandos may have operated within the law, but automatic weapons to retrieve, as one opposition MP put it, “a piece of paper” appear to be overkill. Vítězslav Jandák of the Social Democrats said he understood commandos carrying automatic weapons in the case of apprehending dangerous individuals but not this. Fellow Social Democrat and former interior minister František Bublan said it all made little sense; and, a member of the coalition Civic Democrats, Jan Vidím, who sits on the parliamentary Defence and Security Committee, expressed shock over the incident:

“What happened strikes me as so unbelievable it defies a logical or normal explanation. I don’t understand it and I can’t explain how armed commandos could be in Czech TV, as if it were a military coup!”

The head of Czech TV, Jiří Janeček, confirmed almost immediately that the station would not take the incident lightly.

“In my view this was crazy and unlawful interference. We are bound – by law – to protect our sources, there are no two ways about it. But it’s difficult to defend against someone with weapons. We will of course take legal action and steps in this direction are already underway.”

Alexandr Vondra

Later on Friday evening on Czech TV, the head of the military police commander’s office, Michaela Cvanová, defended the decision to send in the team, saying no laws had been broken and that they had a court order - in other words, the right to raid the civilian site. In her words a day earlier the military police had reportedly tried to reach an agreement with Czech TV but were allegedly shown the door, justifying – in her view – Friday’s more drastic approach. Now it appears the lawyers will take over and many probably wish Friday’s ‘storming’ of Czech TV had never happened. Still, despite the suspensions and the defence minister’s criticism, Alexandr Vondra stressed there were other issues at stake: namely how a previously classified defence ministry file had been leaked to a journalist, part of the ongoing case.