Press Review

George Bush during the meeting on the Azores, photo: CTK

As it does newspapers all over the world, one issue dominates the front pages of all the Czech dailies: the prospect of a war with Iraq. The headlines of all of the Czech newspapers declare that the diplomacy has ended and the war will be decided on today, as the United Nations Security Council votes on a resolution on Iraq. The front pages feature large colour photos of British prime minister Tony Blair, Spain's Jose-Maria Aznar and American president George Bush during their meeting on the Azores this weekend, and Mlada Fronta Dnes reports that the Czech Republic's own State Security Council will today meet to decide how Prague will react to an American-led attack on Iraq.

Protests in Prague, photo: CTK

Just as in other cities around the world, there was again a protest against a war in Iraq in Prague this weekend. But the protest was much smaller than the protests in Madrid, Milan and Berlin, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people. Pravo writes that just around one thousand people were present on Prague's Old Town Square on Sunday afternoon in a demonstration organised by the group Initiative against War. The group has also been collecting signatures for an anti-war petition which it intends to present to the Czech parliament, government and president - and so far it has around three thousand signatures.

Another protest took place on Prague's Old Town Square on Saturday, this time organised by the group Citizens against the EU. But only around fifty people participated in this protest against the Czech Republic's entry into the European Union, Pravo reports. They carried banners with slogans such as "God - homeland - family," "An independent state" and "We don't want Brussels." The group deliberately chose to stage its protest on March 15 - the anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany - as it believes that entry into the European Union would be another threat to Czech independence.

While the newspapers are mostly focussing on domestic and international politics, a non-political story is also receiving much attention today. It concerns an eight-year old boy named Radim Nemec, who went missing in the southern Bohemian village of Maly Ratmirov on Friday, on his way home from visiting friends. Lidove Noviny reports that around seven hundred people - including police, fire fighters, soldiers and volunteers - took part in a search for the boy over the weekend. Radim Nemec's mother Martina Nemcova tells Lidove Noviny that she suspects her son was abducted and taken away in a car.

And, finally, today's Hospodarske Noviny brings us the results of a study on the recycling habits of Czechs conducted by the group EKO-KOM. The good news is that last year every Czech recycled on average approximately twenty five kilograms of rubbish, which is three times more than three years before, and fifty seven per cent of Czechs recycle. But for the Czech Republic to match European Union standards, each Czech will have to recycle twenty-five per cent more rubbish by 2005... And perhaps they could start with their daily newspaper!