Press Review

There is no one story dominating the papers today, although all report on preparations for the NATO summit that is to be held in Prague in two weeks' time, as well as the results of the week-end's Senate and regional elections.

"NATO does not want Lukashenko in Prague," writes LIDOVE NOVINY, reporting on a dilemma that the Czech Republic is currently facing. Both the Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma have expressed interest in coming to Prague to attend the NATO summit. Mr Lukashenko has gone as far as to apply for a visa to the Czech Republic. NATO representatives are not very keen to meet them, writes the paper, but the Czech Republic can hardly refuse the two presidents entry to the country.

MLADA FRONTA DNES analyses the results of the week-end's Senate and regional elections and points to four main consequences. Czech citizens are being introduced to new faces, the number of cities in which the Communists have won has increased, the defeat of the Christian Democrats is resulting in internal party turmoil, and the Civic Democratic Party wants the post of Senate Chairman. Staying with the latter, the paper writes that the right-of-centre opposition Civic Democrats, which now have 26 of the 81 seats in the Senate already have a favourite for the post - the former mayor of the Moravian capital, Brno, Dagmar Lastovecka.

On the same note, PRAVO looks at the chances of current Senate Chairman Petr Pithart, defending his post. With his party losing support - the Christian Democrats lost five Senators in the elections, leaving it with only 16 representatives in the Upper House - Mr Pithart will find it difficult to hold on to his post, especially since most parties no longer find it fair for the party with the worst results to lead the Senate.

Since it is most likely that Mr Pithart will soon be just the average Senator, he will be better off focusing on his candidacy for president next year, the paper writes. It adds, however, that his chances as president will depend on who the Social Democrats choose as their presidential candidate. The most likely candidates so far, according to PRAVO, are former Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Ombudsman Otakar Motejl.

And staying with Mr Motejl. PRAVO reports that the ombudsman has been accused by a prominent Social Democrat of having harmed political prisoners in the 1960's. The honorary chairman of the Social Democrats, Slavomir Klaban, tells the paper that at the time, the Supreme Court issued verdicts that violated basic human rights. He concludes that since Mr Motejl was a member of the court's panel, he bears the partial responsibility for the persecution of political prisoners, a claim that Mr Motejl himself vehemently denies.

Moving on to the country's leading economic and business daily HOSPODARSKE NOVINY. Amidst all the preparation for the NATO summit, Czech computer experts have also been working hard at securing the summit's web pages. Daniel Volf who is responsible for the summit's website tells the paper that the likelihood of the site being attacked by hackers is quite high. He adds that there are some methods that hackers use that cannot be countered. The office responsible for preparations for the NATO summit has spent five million Czech crowns, or over 160,000 U.S. dollars, on computer equipment so far. Some 30% of the sum was used for the website's security system. All computers, monitors, and printers that are to be used by delegates have been hired rather than purchased outright to save as much money as possible for security, the paper concludes.

On an economic note, HOSPODARSKE NOVINY writes that Prague is becoming ever more attractive to foreign companies. Whilst in 2001, the Czech capital was on 21st place on the list of attractive places for European companies, it is now on 16th place. Out of all the European capital cities, Prague's popularity in terms of international business has risen the most.