Paroubek, Topolanek disagree over whether special committee session should be open to media

The Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and the head of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats Mirek Topolanek have disagreed over whether or not a Parliamentary committee's session on Monday should be open to the media. The Committee for Defence and Security will meet to discuss new allegations in the so-called "bio fuel case" - following a statement by the head of the police unit for investigating organised crime. Its head, Jan Kubice, said this week that a campaign was being run to discredit the unit's officers investigating corruption in the recent bio fuel tender. It has been suggested that there might be links between the case and the January murder of businessman Frantisek Mrazek.

The prime minister has called for all proceedings on Monday to be open to be televised, but the Civic Democrats' Mirek Topolanek has disagreed. He says that under such circumstances the police unit head would be unable to disclose classified information.