Phone tapping not more common than elsewhere in Europe, say police

Telephone surveillance is not more common in the Czech Republic than in other European countries, according to a new report presented by police chief Jiri Kolar and Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan on Friday. It was commissioned on the instigation of President Vaclav Klaus, after a number of high profile cases of alleged phone tapping. Civic Democrat MP Jiri Bily says the study is not objective or independent because it was carried out by the police themselves; he has called on the Justice Ministry to begin a fresh inquiry.