News

Journalist Sabina Slonková has been fined 20,000 crowns (nearly 1,000 USD) for protecting one of her sources. Ms Slonková, who works for the news website Aktualně, refused to reveal who handed her material from a meeting held between lobbyist Miroslav Šlouf and head of the president’s office Jiří Weigl shortly before the presidential election last year. The reporter was convicted under a law which compels journalists to identify their sources when such information can be used to investigate serious crimes such as murder. Ms Slonková has said the lawsuit is tantamount to ‘harassment’. On Saturday, Mladá fronta Dnes reported that the fine was the first of its sort to be handed out since the Velvet Revolution.

Representatives of 15 NGOs have criticized the Czech Republic for its handling of the case of Vietnamese immigrant Le Kim Thanh. Mr Thanh was expelled from the Czech Republic for five years after working for three weeks without a visa while his application was pending. Three other men were also expelled, but they appealed the decision, and their expulsion was cut to three months. Mr Thanh did not manage to lodge an appeal because he was ill at the time. On Friday, some of the country’s most prominent NGOs called on the government to rethink its stance on the case. In an open letter, they said that it was the employer who had made a mistake with the visa, and not Mr Thanh. Education Minister Ondřej Liška said that the authorities had not taken the ‘human element’ of the Vietnamese worker’s case into account. The Czech Foreign Police respond that they have no reason to reassess the decision.

Members of the far-right Workers’ Party will stand in the upcoming European Parliament elections even if their party is banned by the Supreme Administrative Court, their leader Tomáš Vandas told press on Saturday. Mr Vandas said that if the party was banned, it would quickly form a new entity to run in the elections. The Workers’ Party recently drew the focus of the international media when it organized a series of rallies in Litvínov, northern Bohemia, attacking the town’s Romany population.

The Chamber of Deputies has passed an amendment to the Czech penal code banning the publication – or broadcasting - of police wiretap material by the media. The amendment introduces prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who publishes transcripts of conversations recorded by police, which critics say will threaten the freedom of the press. Until now, the Czech media relied regularly on police transcripts to point to connections, for example, in organised crime. It is the second time the lower house has passed the amendment, after it was rejected by the Senate. Other parts of the law deal with protecting the identities of victims of violent crimes. The amendment must still be signed by the president before coming into effect.