Weekly says it will not apologise to Milan Kundera

The Czech weekly Respekt has said it will not apologise for a recent article alleging that Czech born-writer Milan Kundera informed on a man spying for the West in Communist Czechoslovakia. A statement was released on Friday by the weekly’s editor-in-chief. The story, published in mid-October, centred on a Czech historian’s uncovering of a police document dating back to 1950. In the case, the man Mr Kundera allegedly informed on spent 14 years in prison. The author of such novels as The Unbearable Lightness of Being has denied the allegation and has threatened to sue. A number of observers have come out against the article. The Czech Academy of Sciences, for example, criticised the manner of the story’s publication, suggesting that the methods used showed what it called “a lack of critical scientific thinking”.