Press Review

There is no one story which dominates Wednesday's front pages. Mlada fronta Dnes has a huge photo of Olympic gold winner Ales Valenta, which reflects the current interest in the freestyle aerial skier - normally he would not be on the front pages for winning a competition in the east Bohemian ski resort of Spindleruv Mlyn.

Several of the papers also carry photos of a new car unveiled at the Geneva car show - the Skoda Tudor, which is a sports coupe. However, the Skoda Tudor on show in Geneva is only a one-off produced by Skoda's designers - the car will never be mass-produced and sold to the public."A lot of people like the car," Skoda's head designer Thomas Ingenlath told Mlada fronta Dnes, "but a lot more people admire it than would be prepared to buy it."

The Civic Democrats recently announced their policy programme ahead of June's elections, including a promise of a flat 15% income tax. In an interview in Pravo, trade unions leader Richard Falbr slams the proposal, calling it a con. It would be theft from those who have lower incomes, and the state would lose a hundred billion crowns a year, Falbr tells the daily.

Lidove noviny reports on a survey on the lifestyles of Romany children carried out in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Sweden. One of the survey's findings was that Romany children have a relatively large amount of freedom; they go to bed when they like, they have money at a relatively young age and they take full part in family debates.

And talking about children, while in many countries it is normal for parents to write notes to their child's school excusing their child in case of illness, here in the Czech Republic the Ministry of Education said six months ago that doctors had to sign such sick notes. But, reports Mlada fronta Dnes doctors did not like the idea and refused to sign sick notes for school children. Now the ministry has given in - and parents have the right once again to excuse their ill children.

Pravo reports on its arts page that a new Czech literary award, intended to be an equivalent of Britain's Booker prize or the Pulitzer in the US has been launched. The award - called Magnesia Litera - will be presented for the first time in April. The aim of the awards is of course to generate public interest in literature.

A new law against excessive lighting which makes it difficult to observe the sky at night - known as the dark sky law - will not mean that Prague Castle will no longer be lit up at night, reports Mlada fronta Dnes in its Prague section.

One of the law's stipulations is that areas around planetariums and observatories must have limited lighting at night - however, astonomers have made an exception in the case of Prague Castle, which is not far from the Petrin Observatory.