Press Review
What looks like the final instalment in the TV Nova saga dominates the front pages today - all the papers lead with news that the Czech Republic finally paid 335 million dollars in compensation to the station's former investors on Thursday, after the country lost a final appeal in an international court of arbitration. The papers also carry more details of Vladimir Zelezny's dramatic departure from the post of General Director.
In the end, says Mlada Fronta Dnes, Mr Zelezny was given just an hour's notice. He only learned of his sacking when he came back to TV Nova after a meeting to find security guards in his office. "He fought hard to hang onto his post, but in the end he didn't have a chance," says a Nova insider. Other sources told the paper that Mr Zelezny - who's been in charge of Nova since the station's launch in 1994 - has been banned from the building by the station's new owners.
Meanwhile the government is now looking for ways to recoup the 335 million dollars they were forced to pay out to cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, the U.S. investor who was frozen out by Mr Zelezny and then sued the Czech Republic for damages. And those damages were huge: 335 million dollars is equivalent to the annual budget of the Health Ministry, says Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla in Lidove Noviny. His cabinet colleague, Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, is quoted in Pravo as saying Mr Zelezny is morally responsible for the debt.
Mlada Fronta Dnes also has coverage of a horrific assault on renowned psychiatrist and forensic expert Karel Hynek, who was attacked by a former patient wielding a machete on Thursday. Dr Hynek is now fighting for his life in hospital with serious injuries to the arms and head. "When we arrived the man was still sitting in the surgery," says a policeman called to the scene. "The attacker looked like he was in some kind of trance, just sitting there holding the machete."
Lidove Noviny meanwhile looks at the story of the blackmailer threatening to poison hospital and canteen food with cyanide unless he receives 300 million crowns. The police had until Thursday to come up with the cash, but the deadline expired with no reports of any poisonings.
The method chosen by the blackmailer for delivering the cash was highly intricate, says Lidove Noviny. He demanded that 100,000 bank cards be attached to copies of the free newspaper Metro. Only he would have the PIN number. A police spokeswoman told the paper the idea wasn't feasible: Metro themselves hadn't heard anything about it.
And finally the Prague section of Mlada Fronta Dnes asked inhabitants of Prague what bothered them most about their city. Most people answering the survey put transport in first place, saying they were in favour of reducing car traffic in the city centre and improving public transport.
