Press Review
Making the headlines today - news that former Communist official Karel Hoffman has lost his appeal in court for his role in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion, claims that the police routinely ignore traffic regulations, and surprising reports that three-fifths of university students would be willing to pay some of their tuition fees.
MLADA FRONTA DNES claims the Czech police - who recently launched a nationwide crackdown on bad drivers - themselves ignore the Highway Code with alarming regularity. In a joint operation with Czech Television, MLADA FRONTA DNES carried out their own nationwide crackdown - on the police. They discovered that policemen frequently drive as badly as the drivers they targeted during the recent operation, writes the paper.
MLADA FRONTA DNES highlights four particular offences committed by policemen - speeding, ignoring no entry signs, parking in no-parking areas, and failing to wear their seatbelts. Reporters standing at one crossroads saw 16 police cars ignoring no-entry signs in one hour. Both the police and the Interior Ministry say they're aware the problem exists, says the paper. Whether they'll do anything about it remains to be seen.
PRAVO writes that deputies and senators belonging to the Communist Party plan to boycott Tuesday's award ceremony in the Senate, where former President Vaclav Havel will receive the country's highest state honour. "I don't think I can make it," says Communist Party leader Miroslav Grebenicek, and his colleagues are likely to find similar excuses to avoid Tuesday's ceremony.
The Communists never regarded Havel as "their president", says PRAVO, because he consistently ignored them during his thirteen years in office. However they'll be one more empty seat at Tuesday's ceremony - that of Mr Havel's successor, Vaclav Klaus. He's on a one-day visit to Plzen, and says he can't make it back to Prague in time.
Meanwhile LIDOVE NOVINY claims that up to three-fifths of university students would be willing to contribute towards the cost of their education. The paper commissioned a polling agency to ask 300 students whether they'd be prepared to contribute to their tuition fees, and surprisingly found out that around 60 percent would. Most said they'd be happy to pay up to 10,000 crowns, or around 360 dollars, a year.
Back to MLADA FRONTA DNES, and a warning for readers living in Prague's Karlin district: in the next few days the streets of Karlin will be adorned with swastika flags. The flags are not being put there by neo-Nazis, says the paper: they're being raised for a new German film about the Second World War.
