Press Review
All the papers today are dominated by two big stories - the death of alleged StB torturer Alois Grebenicek and the fraud charges against Viktor Kozeny, the notorious "Pirate of Prague". Also making headlines today is Monday's shooting in the Prague metro, a story which receives prominent coverage in Mlada Fronta Dnes.
As the paper reports today, a 26-year-old man narrowly escaped with his life after a seemingly trivial incident turned extremely nasty. The incident, says Mlada Fronta Dnes, took place inside one of the metro carriages at Muzeum station, one of the capital's busiest. As the train came to a halt, the young man stumbled and fell forward, bumping into another passenger. The passenger, described as a man aged around 30, responded by pulling out a gun and shooting him in the arm. He then made his escape.
The public has been shocked by the incident, says the paper, and some are questioning how such aggressive people are ever allowed to own a gun in the first place. Mlada Fronta Dnes gives some alarming figures on gun ownership - there are currently more than 600,000 legally-held weapons in the Czech Republic.
Czech politicians, says Mlada Fronta Dnes, are slowly beginning to realise that gifts such as VIP tickets to rock concerts and other events can cause rather unpleasant problems. The German-owned mobile phone company T-Mobile invited a number of top politicians to the Stones concert, including Information Technology Minister Vladimir Mlynar, Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolanek and Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda.
The first two declined the free tickets, says the paper, but Mr Svoboda accepted. A spokesman for the ministry said Mr Svoboda had nothing to hide, but with his salary of more than 100,000 crowns a month, why didn't he just buy one? asks Mlada Fronta Dnes. Vladimir Mlynar had evidently learnt his lesson from the recent Karlovy Vary film festival: he was severely criticised for accepting VIP tickets from festival sponsors Cesky Telecom.
And staying on a Stones theme - Lidove Noviny features a picture of guitarist Keith Richards and the rather provocative T-shirt he wore at Sunday's concert. The T-shirt featured a raised middle finger and the words...well, we can't actually repeat them on the radio, but they involved the Communist Party and a word beginning with the letter F.
The T-shirt was produced by enfant terrible artist David Cerny, and is part of an anti-Communist campaign currently underway in the Czech Republic. The T-shirt, says Lidove Noviny, was handed to Keith by former president and die-hard Stones fan Vaclav Havel, who did accept VIP tickets to Sunday's concert.
