Press Review
The story of terrorist attacks that killed 16 and injured 80 in Mombasa, Kenya, Thursday dominates the pages of today's Czech dailies - with PRAVO showing a picture of the dead amidst the bombed-out rubble of a Kenyan hotel, a picture that doesn't make easy viewing. Other newspapers like LIDOVE NOVINY and MLADA FRONTA DNES feature photos of greatly relieved family members greeting their loved ones who were aboard an Israeli jet taking off from Mombasa's airport, narrowly missed by two missiles that could have brought the plane down. Reportedly the missiles missed so narrowly passengers could see the smoke trails outside their windows.
The story of terrorist attacks that killed 16 and injured 80 in Mombasa, Kenya, Thursday dominates the pages of today's Czech dailies - with PRAVO showing a picture of the dead amidst the bombed-out rubble of a Kenyan hotel, a picture that doesn't make easy viewing. Other newspapers like LIDOVE NOVINY and MLADA FRONTA DNES feature photos of greatly relieved family members greeting their loved ones who were aboard an Israeli jet taking off from Mombasa's airport, narrowly missed by two missiles that could have brought the plane down. Reportedly the missiles missed so narrowly passengers could see the smoke trails outside their windows.
On the home front Jiri Balvin the general director of the Czech Republic's public broadcaster Czech TV has cleaned out his desk, writes LIDOVE NOVINY - after Mr Balvin was sacked by Czech TV's supervisory board earlier in the week. The board was unhappy about a series of managerial mistakes by Mr Balvin, most importantly his failing to restructure the station according to an earlier project proposal. Meanwhile, Mr Balvin is far from happy about the decision but has not revealed whether he will take any kind of legal action.
Moving on: the tension among the presidential nominees to succeed Vaclav Havel is heating up, writes MLADA FRONTA DNES, commenting on the Social Democrats' party referendum to decide their potential candidate. Former prime minister Milos Zeman emerged as the overall winner in a public referendum, making life difficult for the Social Democrat leadership, who launched the referendum to try and reduce his chances. However Mr Zeman has made it clear he would only take part in elections in the second round.
Staying with MLADA FRONTA DNES, the daily also features a story this Friday on the failure to privatise state-owned shares in major industries in the Czech Republic: three out of five important privatisation deals recently fell through, and, notes the paper, even unsuccessful deals cost the state more than a hundred million crowns.
That's because the funds went towards hiring economic consultants to help set up the deals to sell-off state-owned shares. The paper points out while it might seem like a lot: a single hour of consultations rings the cash register to the tune of hundreds of dollars, and top managers regularly fly from London to Prague first class.
To be fair: consulting companies do not get full fees when deals ultimately fail, though they still get a lot. The paper quotes the head of consulting company JP Morgan as saying his company was mainly supposed to get profits from the successful sale, in this case of the fixed-line operator Czech Telecom, which fell through just this week.
Turning from business to culture HOSPODARSKE NOVINY reports on the Strings of Autumn classical music festival currently underway in Prague, and features an interview with internationally-acclaimed clarinet player Sharon Kam who performed Brahms and Schumann at Prague Castle this week. In the interview Ms Kam says she likes to mix up her recitals playing not only classical pieces but also more contemporary pieces like a work by Joseph Horowitz she performed in Prague that touches upon jazz. Says Ms Kam: I'm fascinated by jazz.
