News

New electronic communication legislation passed by the government has raised concerns about the erosion of personal liberties. The legislation enables phone operators to collect data about their customers including where, when and whom people are calling. The legislation narrowly passed its second reading after being rejected in the first round by the coalition Green Party. The opposition Social Democrats have accused the bill of fomenting the notion of a police state, spying on its citizens. They also criticised that the state, not the companies involved would be paying for the collection of data – with an estimated price tag of around 300 million crowns. The governing Civic Democrats have defended the legislation arguing that it is similar to legislation enacted across the EU

The governmental agency for the protection of private data has ruled that a camera system used in the Prague Savoy hotel was misused. Specifically, the case relates to a meeting between a Social Democrat lobbyist and Jiří Weigl, head of the office of the Czech president, which took place at the Savoy and was captured on its cameras. A recording of the meeting was made public around the time of the presidential elections leading to speculation that President Klaus was attempting to illicitly gain votes from some Social Democrat MPs – while the party officially supported opposition candidate Jan Švejnar. How the video recordings of the meeting were leaked to the media is still being investigated, but at present, the agency investigating the incident has found the hotel to be involved in excessive surveillance of its customers, storing surveillance recordings and not informing guests that they are being monitored. The hotel has denied the charges stating that recordings are made for the safety of its guests.

The Czech senate is widely expected to approve a 465 crown increase in pensions from August this week. The move comes as a response to rising inflation levels in the Czech Republic. Extraordinary pension increases are allowed by law if inflation exceeds 10 percent. However, in this case, special legislation has been drafted to allow an increase if inflation exceeds only five percent.

Czech police have recovered all of the bronze name plaques which were stolen from the graves of Holocaust victims in Northern Bohemia two weeks ago. Tuesday’s edition of Mladá fronta Dnes reports that thieves stole more than 800 name plates from the national cemetery in Terezín, which they then sold for scrap. A suspect has been arrested in connection with the incident, and if found guilty, could face up to eight years in prison. The scrap-yard owner who bought the plates, however, is unlikely to be prosecuted, a police spokesperson told the daily. The damage that the Holocaust memorial suffered is thought to have run into millions of crowns, all of the bronze plates were found broken into pieces. A private security firm has been guarding the graveyard from any further thefts since the beginning of this week.