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Carolina (English) No 147
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Faculty of Social Science of Charles University
Smetanovo nabr. 6
110 01 Prague 1
Czech Republic
e-mail: CAROLINA@cuni.cz
tel: (+42 2) 24810804, ext. 252, fax: (+42 2) 24810987
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C A R O L I N A No 147, Friday, February 10, 1995.
EVENTS FOR THE WEEK FEB. 1-8
Czechs Prejudiced Against Romanies, Says U.S. Gov't Report
In its 1994 report on the observance of human rights around the
world, the U.S. State Department criticizes the Czech Republic for
prejudice against Romanies and the government's unwillingness to deal
with this problem. Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus responded to the
report by labeling it distorted and oversimplified.
Other problems listed in the State Department report are the 1991
"lustrace" (screening) law, which bans former high-ranking members of
the Communist Party from holding posts in state administration and
state-owned industry until the year 1996, and legislation on slander
of the president, which the report described as a threat to freedom of
speech.
In addition, the report criticizes the Czechs for having too
little debate on violence against women, as well as for the small
number of women active in Czech politics. Also, it comments on the
status of handicapped persons and alleged violence against children.
"I can't believe my eyes what's written there," said Klaus. Deputy
Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra described the report as "valuable
information but not a directive". According to Vondra, the ministry is
not going to issue an official statement on the report.
Jiri Payne, chairman of Parliament's foreign affairs committee and
a member of Klaus's Civic Democratic Party, said he saw the State
Department's criticism as justified in some points. In particular,
Payne said he agreed that the articles of the penal code on slander of
the president were discriminatory. According to him, they create
inequality between the president and other constitutional officials,
since criticizing the head of state may in some cases be considered
slanderous and therefore be punished by law. "But since the government
is preparing a new penal code, I consider the (State Department's)
declaration to be rather rash," Payne said.
Responding to the report's comments on the treatment of Romanies
in the Czech Republic, Payne said the principle of civil society was
"a traditional attribute of Czech democracy". No one in this country,
according to him, discriminates against Romanies.
On the same issue, Parliament's Deputy Chairman Jan Kasal
(Christian and Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party),
declared: "Romanies have the same rights as the non-Romany population
in the Czech Republic. The thing is that they don't feel the same
obligations."
In accordance with an act of U.S. Congress, the State Department
has been compiling an annual human rights report since the mid-1970s.
According to Jiri Dienstbier, head of the non-parliamentary Free
Democrats and the first Czechoslovak minister of foreign affairs
following the 1989 regime change, U.S. congressmen De Concini and
Hoyer sent a letter to the Czech prime minister in October expressing
their concern with the Czech citizenship law and giving the government
a chance to rectify the situation before the publication of the State
Department report.
Dienstbier believes the report was compiled on the basis of the
Czech press, reports by non-governmental organizations and the
evaluation of a U.S. embassy staff member charged with monitoring
human rights observance. Stepanka Kucerova/Jirka Sch.
Council of Europe Criticizes Screening Law and Anti-Communist Act
The 1991 Czech "lustrace", or screening, law is probably
a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to
a report to be discussed by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary
Assembly in a debate on the dismantling of the Communist system.
The Assembly postponed the discussion of the report on Friday,
Feb. 3, because the report was submitted by a Danish deputy who is no
longer a member of the Assembly. Now the matter is being sent back to
the Legal Committee which deals with human rights observance.
According to the report, the Czech "lustrace" law discriminates on
the basis of political affiliation and beliefs, and was applied
retroactively. Also the CE report criticizes the Czech legislation of
1993 which declared the 1948-89 Communist regime illegal, saying it
assigns collective guilt and threatens the principle of legal security
enshrined in the Convention by abrogating the statute of limitations.
Stepanka Kucerova/Jirka Sch.
Parliamentary Club of Civic Democratic Party Accepts Jezek
Tomas Jezek, who resigned from the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA)
on Jan. 27 because of accusations made against the Czech secret
service by the ODA chairman (see Carolina no. 146), joined the club of
Civic Democratic Party (ODS) MPs as an independent on Tuesday.
With the addition of Jezek the ODS club now has 67 members, making
the largest one in the 200-member Czech Parliament.
Jana Maruskova/Jirka Sch.
Lizner Set Free, Awaiting Trial
Jaroslav Lizner, the main actor in the biggest corruption scandal
in Czech society since 1989 (see Carolina nos. 136, 137, 145), was
released from custody on Thursday, Feb. 2. He is now waiting to stand
trial on charges of accepting a bribe of more than 8 million Kc to
influence the coupon privatization process.
Lizner has refused to comment on his arrest and the charges
against him until he has a chance to familiarize himself with the
contents of his police file.
The day after his release, Lizner was officially removed as
director of both the Center for Coupon Privatization and the Center
for Securities by Finance Minister Ivan Kocarnik. Following a
vacation, Lizner will be permitted to return to the Finance Ministry
as a regular employee. Jana Maruskova/Jirka Sch.
TV Nova Celebrates First Birthday
TV Nova, the first privately owned, nationwide television station
in either the Czech Republic or all of post-Communist Europe, turned
1 year old on Feb. 4.
According to the latest polls conducted by AISA and Gfk, 68.4
percent of Czechs prefer Nova, giving it a large lead over its
publicly funded competitor Czech Television, which is watched by 26.5
percent of Czechs (24.2 percent of them Channel 1 and 2.3 percent
Channel 2).
Premiera, the first private TV station of any kind in the Czech
Republic, though it broadcasts only in the region of Prague and
central Bohemia, is watched by 1.7 percent of Czechs.
Nova's main strengths are its aggressive journalism, a selection
of programs that offers something for all tastes, and a wide variety
of films, most of them from the United States. Its newscasts, however,
have been criticized for resembling a tabloid with moving pictures.
Tomas Kopecny/Jirka Sch.
Greenpeace Asks for Explanation of Government Surveillance
After the international activist environmental group appeared on
a list of "extremist" organizations monitored by the Czech secret
service, the director of Czech Greenpeace wrote a letter to Czech
Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus requesting an explanation.
In his letter of Feb. 2, Ivo Silhavy asked Klaus to investigate
the "concrete reason" that led to the group's inclusion on a list of
"extremist" organizations compiled by the Security Information Service
(BIS). Silhavy is also asking that Greenpeace and other environmental
groups be removed from a list of organizations monitored by the
Ministry of the Interior. Andrea Rihova (from Rude pravo)/Jirka Sch.
Seminar on the 100th Anniversary of Peroutka's Birth
A book by and about Czech journalist Ferdinand Peroutka titled
"Deniky, dopisy, vzpominky" ("Diaries, Letters, Memories") will be
introduced at Charles University's Faculty of Social Sciences in
Prague on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the 100th anniversary of Peroutka's birth.
Minister of Culture Pavel Tigrid has promised to attend the event.
Next to Karel Havlicek Borovsky, Peroutka is considered the most
important figure in the history of Czech journalism. His best known
books are "Jaci jsme" ("What We Are Like"), "Osobnost, chaos,
zlozvyky" ("Personality, Chaos and Bad Habits"), and "Tak nebo tak"
("This Way or That").
Despite its fame, "Budovani statu" ("The Building of a State"),
Peroutka's monumental work on the creation of the Czechoslovak state,
was never completed. Peroutka also wrote two novels - "Pozdejsi zivot
Panny" ("The Later Life of the Virgin"), and "Oblak a valcik" (The
Cloud and the Waltz"), both of them published in exile in the 1970s.
Peroutka never aligned himself with any political party, he did
not even fully identify with the politics of President T.G. Masaryk
and his associates, who were the main supporters of democracy in the
interwar Czechoslovak state. Nevertheless, historian Vaclav Cerny
described Peroutka as President Masaryk's most capable and impressive
political spokesman.
Peroutka never gave in to dictatorship, as a result spending five
years in the concentration camp of Buchenwald during World War II. He
left Czechoslovakia after the rise to power of the Communists, who
considered him an "undesirable".
After several decades in exile in the United States, Peroutka died
in New York City on April 20, 1978. Jana Maruskova/Jirka Sch.
College Students May Start Paying Tuition in September
Starting in September of this year, Czech college and university
students will have to pay tuition, according to principles for a new
law on universities drafted by the government and approved at a
Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 1.
According to the government principles, tuition would be paid at
the start of each school year, though the fees will not apply to
students already enrolled.
According to Minister of Education Ivan Pilip, the legislation
will not be ready by the time applications are due for the 1995-96
school year, but it should be adopted in July.
Prime Minister Klaus said the law will expect students to pay for a
maximum of 20 percent of the schools' non-investment expenses, between
2,600 and 10,400 Kc at the moment.
Each individual school will set its own tuition level, with fees
from the students going directly to the school, as state funding is to
be cut by 10 percent.
The government's proposal also provides for students to receive
loans guaranteed by the state, with lower than average interest rates.
Stepanka Kucerova/Jirka Sch.
Havel's New Year's Address a Success with 3/4 of Czechs
A January poll found that 72 percent of Czechs either "very much"
or "rather" liked this year's version of President Vaclav Havel's New
Year's address to the nation.
The survey, in which the Institute for Public Opinion Research
(IVVM) polled 1,030 people above the age of 15, also found that 21
percent of Czechs either "very much" or "rather" disliked it. Seven
percent of the respondents said they were not able to judge.
Andrea Rihova (from Rude pravo)/Jirka Sch.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Czechs Register Deficit Trade Worldwide for '94
The Czech Republic registered a trade deficit of 12.5 billion Kc
for 1994, according to the Czech Bureau of Statistics. Imports last
year amounted to 424 billion Kc, or 13.1 percent more than in 1993.
Exports, meanwhile, rose 6.9 percent over 1993 to 411.55 billion Kc.
Tomas Kopecny/Jirka Sch.
CULTURE
Ninetieth Anniversary of Actor/Writer Jan Werich's Birth
Jan Werich, a brilliant satirist, playwright and author of books
and songs, was born Feb. 6, 1905, and died Oct. 30, 1980.
Werich, a man of profound human wisdom, charm and understanding,
was the co-founder of the Osvobozene divadlo (Liberated Theater) in
the 1920s along with Jiri Voskovec, who was Werich's regular acting
partner until he emigrated to the United States in 1948. The plays and
songs of their theater, with its social satire and jazz, have become
classics in Czech culture. Werich's role in the theater was that of
a comic commentator, the bitter "intellectual clown".
Equally well known are Werich's film roles - with Voskovec, among
others, "Hej rup!" ("Hey Ho!") and "Svet patri nam" ("The World
Belongs to Us") - as well as the fairy tales "Byl jednou jeden kral"
("Once Upon a Time There Was a King") and "Az prijde kocour" ("When
the Tomcat Comes to Town").
Werich was known by children as a fairy tale writer, by adults as
a storyteller, and by all as a great man. Andrea Rihova/Jirka Sch.
SPORTS
Silver for Czechs in European Figure Skating Championships
Rakda Kovarikova and Rene Novotny took the silver medal in sport
couples at the European Championships in Figure Skating last week in
Dortmund, Germany.
Given that the pair had done no better than fourth since 1991,
their second-place finish was a success, though after winning in the
short program they were very close to the title, with four judges
awarding them first place, five second. Tomas Kopecny/Jirka Sch.
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Dear readers!
Owing to the upcoming revision of the computer network and the
reconstruction of the computer rooms that is going to "break out" at
the faculty on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 10, Carolina will not be
published next week. We trust we will reappear on Friday, Feb. 24.
Many thanks for your understanding,
the editors
SUMMER SCHOOL IN PRAGUE
From July 15 to August 5, 1995, the Faculty of Social Sciences,
together with Georgetown University and the Fund for American Studies,
is running its third annual summer school, the American Institute on
Political and Economic Systems.
The program will be held at the Faculty of Social Sciences in
Prague, and will include lectures by staff from both Georgetown
University and Charles University, as well as organised visits, guest
appearances by notable political and cultural figures, and a program
of social activities. The language of tuition is English.
Last year the institute hosted almost 70 students from 12
different countries, and was an enormous success, both academically
and socially. This year, we hope to maintain student numbers at
approximately the same level, and to offer an even more diverse and
interesting program.
Scholarships are available for students from Central and Eastern
Europe.
For further details and an application form, contact either Tony
Mecia at the Fund for American Studies or Cyril Simsa at the Faculty
of Social Sciences, at the following e-mail addresses:
Tony Mecia: 75604.3347@compuserve.com
Cyril Simsa: SVOZ@mbox.fsv.cuni.cz
Please remember to include your full postal address, as well as your
e-mail address, since the application forms have to be sent by post!
We look forward to hearing from you.
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