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Carolina (English) No 176
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STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECH REPUBLIC
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 176, Friday, October 27, 1995.
EVENTS FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 18-25
President Vaclav Havel at United Nations' 50th Anniversary Celebration
President Vaclav Havel took part in the largest summit in the
history of the United Nations from October 22 through 24 in New York. In
his speech at the October 24 celebratory General Assembly, Havel
outlined his image of the worldwide organization in the next millenium,
and declared his support for expansion of the Security Council's
membership.
Havel engaged in conversations with Irish President Mary Robinson,
Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and with
Jordan's King Hussein.
The ceremonial opening of the Czech and Slovak Museum and Library
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on October 21 was also on the president's
itinerary, and was also attended by Slovak President Michal Kovac and
American President Bill Clinton.
Natasa Hajkova, Michaela Vysoudilova/Jitka Motejzikova
Kalvoda Criticizes Government at Party Congress
The government has failed to fulfil the promises of its program
declared after the 1992 elections, said Jan Kalvoda, chairman of the
Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) and deputy prime minister of the
government, at ODA's party conference October 22. He put the blame
mainly on ODA's coalition partner in the government, Prime Minister
Vaclav Klaus' Civic Democratic Party (ODS), which changes its attitudes
"according to the wind blowing currently and the weather forecasts,"
Kalvoda said. He further expressed his dissatisfaction with the
prevailing ideology of the pragmatism to which a significant part of the
country's political representatives has succumbed. He specifically
criticized the slow reduction of taxes, insufficient state
decentralization and housing policy.
Klaus, apparently irritated by Kalvoda's remarks at the ODA
conference, said he views them as unfair, considering the fact that ODA
party is an integral part of the government.
Milos Zeman, head of the opposition Social Democrats (CSSD), also
commented on Kalvoda's address. He said that by criticizing the
nonfulfilment of the government program, Kalvoda admitted his partial
responsibility for the present state.
Matej Bartosek/Milan Smid
Jaroslav Lizner Sentenced for Corruption and Abuse of Authority
Former director of the Center of Voucher Privatization and Central
Registry of Securities Jaroslav Lizner was sentenced on October 18 to
prison for seven years.The court found him guilty of both charges, abuse
of public authority and accepting a bribe. Lizner will not be able to
work in any public institution for 10 years. Also he must pay
a 1,000,000-crown penalty.
The forty-five-year-old Lizner was accused of taking advantage of
his position and the information he had access to, and providing 40 per
cent of the shares of Klatovy Dairy for the firm Trans World
International. In October 1994, he took a 8,334,500-crown bribe from the
executive director of TWI.
From the beginning of the investigation, Lizner has insisted on his
innocence. He said he never manipulated coupon privatization data nor
took any bribe.He appealed the court's verdict immediately.
Radim Wolak/Katerina Zachovalova
Screening Law Extended Until the Year 2000
Parliament representatives October 18 approved both extensions of
the Screenning, or Lustration, Law that were returned to Parliament by
President Havel for rediscussion. The laws will thus be valid until the
end of this century.
The president refused to sign both updates mainly because he
considered an extension of this revolution-era legislation to be
unnecessary (see Carolina 174.) According to information from the
presidential office, Havel wasn't surprised by the extensions' approval.
He wanted only to express his objections in principle to the ways out on
which the law was based.
A minimum of 101 positive votes was needed in Parliament to
override Havel's veto. The first extensiont, which bars former communist
State Secret Police employees and collaborators from working in certain
positions, was supported by 128 representatives. The extension of the
lustration in the armed forces was ratified by 127 parliament members.
Petra Rubesova/Klara Schirova
Political Parties Will Be Allowed to Participate in Business without
Office's Supervision.
The Constitutional Court October 18 accepted the request of mainly
opposition deputies who proposed to abolish the ban on political parties
from entrepreneurial activity. The change will be valid from January 1,
1997. The High Office of Control (NKU) lost its control over the
political parties' business activity - including business conducted with
state contributions, which are allocated according to the number of
votes recieved in parliamentary elections. These measures were accepted
because the original limitations contradict the Constitution and the
Bill of Rights. Olga Huderova/Klara Schirova
Journalists Will Not Have Either Responsibility or Right to Protect
Sources
Former First Deputy Minister of Culture Michal Prokop had
a friendly talk about press laws with journalism students at the School
of Social Sciences in Prague October 23.
On October 18 the government approved the press bill. From the
primary text, which was submitted by Minister of Culture Pavel Tigrid,
the following points were omitted: a journalist's right (and if
necessary, responsibility) to protect his source, government offices'
obligation to provide information and an editor-in-chief's obligation to
publish the reaction of anyone affected by the published information.
The government also recommended deleting the provision about
cross-ownership of print and electronic media with the proviso that
potential concentration of ownership would be monitored by the Ministry
of Economic Competition.
Lucie Chytrackova/Maria Tripoliti
NEWS IN BRIEF
* If Parliament does not pass by February the Higher Education Bill,
which should soon be taken up by the government, students will pay up
to 10,000 crowns in tuition next year, for which banks will offer
favorable loans.
* Czech citizens think the media (64 per cent) and the President (63
per cent) have the best influence on the activities of the nation.
* In connection with allegations of fraud on the television game show
TV Bingo Nova (see the previous issue of Carolina), one-third less
people play the game.
* Police and firemen had to intervene at an unsanctioned demonstration
in front of the French Embassy in Prague October 20 staged by the
enviromental organization Deti zeme (Children of the Earth) against the
French nuclear tests on the Mururoa atoll.
* The doctors' strike planned to begin November 1 will take place, in
the opinion of David Rath, chairman of the Medical Union Club, but will
take the form of a one-day warning strike.
* The Prague High Court decided in connection with the Arms Moravia
case that the Ministry of the Interior will not be able to to keep the
State Secret Police's archives secret, and that the archives will be
made open to the public.
* The case of film director Filip Renc was reopened by public
prosecutors. Renc, who was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl, has
declared his intention to file a grievance against the investigators,
because he claims he has never seen her before, gynecologists proved her
virginity and her statements were markedly contradictory.
* Moravian Monika Zidkova, Miss Czech Republic 1995, was voted Miss
Europe 1995 on October 23.
* The district attorney's office in Norimberk, Germany confirmed that
the death of Czech Armaments Uhersky Brod former director Miroslav Duda
at March's IWA trade fair in Norimberk was an accident.
* Minister of Trade and Industry Vladimir Dlouhy has contracted
hepatitis A, for which his wife has been treated for three weeks.
Jitka Hejtmanova, Petr Mrzena, Barbora Spevakova, Jaromir Vicari, Arsen
Kocarjan/Katerina Zachovalova
FROM SLOVAKIA
Ivan Lexa Distances Himself from Kidnapping of Michal Kovac Jr.
In an interview for the daily Pravo, Slovak President Michal Kovac
answered the question whether it is possible that the kidnapping of his
son had been directed by Ivan Lexa: "According to what I know from the
most various sources ... there is no need to doubt it."
Lexa responded to this statement by an open letter to the president,
in which he publicly distanced himself for the first time from the
kidnapping of the president's son: "Neither the State Information
Service (SIS) as a state authority of Slovak Republic nor I personally
have nothing in common with the alleged kidnapping of your son...
I emphatically protest and dismiss all the considerations and
allegations substantiated by nothing, by which certain people, including
yourself, Mr. president, are trying to incriminate the SIS and its
representatives."
Petr Pabian/Alena Ticha
President Kovac About his Conflict with Premier Meciar
More and more often recently, Kovac returns to his coflict with
Premier Vladimir Meciar. In an interview for the daily Pravo he said:
"I think that the main aim of campaign against me is not only an
endeavour to deter attention from privatization or other serious
problems, but has as its goal the elimination of my person from the
political scene as one of obstacles standing in the way of another
intentions... The premier's conflict with me is not personal in the
sense of a rivalry for power or because of some aversion. Basically it
is a reflection of the conflict of a differing comprehension and
perception of democracy." Petr Pabian/Alena Ticha
The Slovak National Party Wants to Accuse the President of High Treason
The Slovak National Party (SNS) is considering the possibility of
making a proposal to Parliament to charge President Michal Kovac in the
Supreme Court with treason. The Daily Telegraph quotes SNS Chairman Jan
Slota : "The president is very grossly damaging the interests of the
Slovak Republic with his declarations. On the basis of the president's
information, some representatives of the European Parliament and of the
Council of Europe have the suspicion that basic human rights and
democratic rules of society are broken in Slovakia. These are profound
untruths and disinformation, by which the president very much hurts his
own country and the nation." Petr Pabian/Alena Ticha
BUSINESS/ECONOMICS
Crisis in the Czech Bank: All Branches Closed
On October 19 the Czech National Bank (CNB) started its
administrative operations concerning Czech Bank. CNB's Banking
Commission made the decision after reaching an agreement with the
Ministry of Finance.
According to CNB spokesman Martin Svehla, the main problem of the
bank is a bad credit policy, because the projects to which loans were
given are now found to be unprofitable. The administrative operation
also began because the bank did not work out a realistic recovery
program. In May 1994 the bank had to draw an emergency loan from the CNB
to maintain its solvency for payments. In the middle of 1994, after the
entrance of the Latvian Baltija Bank, the situation of Czech Bank partly
improved, but recently the liquidity of the bank again worsened.
Even in the case of the bankruptcy of Czech Bank, its clients would
not lose all of their deposits. All deposits on the Czech market are
insured according to the law, and the clients would therefore receive
80 percent of their deposits, but only to a maximum of 100,000 crowns.
Zora Kasikova/Katerina Rus
Exchange Rates at the Czech National Bank
(valid from Oct. 27)
country currency
Australiae 1 AUD 19.713
Belgium 100 BEF 90.904
Great Britain 1 GBP 41.092
Danemark 1 DKK 4.812
Finland 1 FIM 6.197
France 1 FRF 5.312
Irealnd 1 IEP 42.269
Italy 1000 ITL 16.236
Japan 100 JPY 25.697
Canada 1 CAD 19.076
Luxemburg 100 LUF 90.904
Netherlands 1 NLG 16.697
Norway 1 NOK 4.216
New Zealand 1 NZD 17.158
Portugal 100 PTE 17.662
Austria 1 ATS 2.658
Greece 100 GRD 11.264
Slovakia 100 SKK 89.253
Germany 1 DEM 18.699
Spain 100 ESP 21.395
Sweden 1 SEK 3.946
Switzerland 1 CHF 22.977
USA 1 USD 26.044
EMS-ECU 1 XEU 34.063
MMF-ZPC-SDR 1 XDR 39.149
CULTURE
Anna Farova on Josef Sudek
The monograph on famous Czech photographer Josef Sudek
(1896-1976), edited and written by Anna Farova, is set to become a big
event in the history of Czech publishing. Anna Farova, born in 1928, is
a historian of photography, an author of books on photographers
Henri-Cartier Bresson and Robert Cappa. The monograph should have been
distributed at Sudek's exhibition in the Spala Gallery on Narodni Street
from the beginning of October, but because of delays caused by faults in
production the book has been available only from October 25 in the
Gallery and only for people who had made a reservation beforehand. The
buyers in Gallery will pay 1,650 Czech crowns, the price in bookstores,
where the monograph will be sold from November, will be 300 crowns
higher.
Sudek's monograph was published by the publishing house TORST, whose
owner, Viktor Soilov, said: "... it is a challenge, a glove slapped on
the face of those cultural institutions that have depositories full of
valuable works and plenty of international contacts, but at the same
time have a big problem publishing this kind of a fine arts
publication." And indeed, when one looks through the book one is
convinced that it is not a mere publication of the photographer's works
with a simple text added to it. The author presents 150 biographic pages
of text complemented with documentary photos and reproductions of the
works of Sudek. She put an emphasis on continuity, she does not only
extract individual pieces of Sudek's life. The delay in distribution,
thanks to the misplacement of the first four pages, is in this case
excusable, because you cannot publish an unfinished book on which the
author worked for twelve years.
Katerina Zachovalova/Katerina Rus
1995 State Prizes for Literature and Translation
The State Prize for Literature and the State Prize for Translation
have been awarded to Ivan Divis and Josef Hirsal, respectively. They
received the prizes in Wallenstein Palace in Prague in the presence of
President Vaclav Havel on October 19. Ivan Divis, poet and essayist, got
the Prize for his work Theory of Reliability. Josef Hirsal won the
acknowledgement for his translation of the work Bloody Ruby by Johann
Christian Gunther.
Klara Schirova, Marketa Hudkova/Milan Smid
Poetry Wins the Jiri Orten Prize Again
The Jiri Orten Prize was given to 25-year-old poet Petr Borkovec,
a student of Bohemian Studies at Charles University, in the Old Town
Hall of Prague on October 18. Borkovec, a native of the small town of
Vlasim, received the prize for his collection of poems Ochoz (Rampart).
The Prize, awarded since 1986, is for distinctive achievements in
prose or poetry made by authors younger than thirty. In 1986 translator
Jindrich Pokorny initiated the creation of the Jiri Orten Prize, and
later the Prague City Hall became a sponsor and raised the value of the
prize to 40,000 Czech crowns.
Lucie Dvorakova/Milan Smid
Long Live Milos Forman in Prague
The retrospective of Milos Forman's films "Long Live Milos Forman"
will take place in Prague next week. Forman is to attend the showing in
the movie theater Lucerna on October 27. All important films of Milos
Forman's career, e.g. Konkurs (Audition), Cerny Petr (Black Peter),
Lasky jedne plavovlasky (Loves of a Blonde), Hori ma panenko (The
Firemen's Ball), Taking Off, One Flew over the Couckoo's Nest, Amadeus
and Valmont, will be shown in Lucerna through October 31.
Klara Schirova, Marketa Hudkova/Michael Bluhm
Obituary Bohumil Bezouska
On Wednesday, October 18, Bohumil Bezouska, actor and writer, died
at the age of 74. Since 1953 he spent nearly 30 years in the National
Theater ensemble in Prague. He belonged to the famous acting generation
of Rudolf Hrusinsky, Josef Kemr, Dana Medricka and others. He acted in
numerous major and minor roles, full of humour but also of bitternes,
sadness and loneliness. He wrote several books, where he colourfully
described the life stories of his acting colleagues. He became famous
particularly through his radio and television performances; in radio he
was active also as a program director.
Jitka Motejzikova/Milan Smid
SPORTS
Zlin's Impotence Lasts 957 Minutes
Zlin defender Smelko is gradually entering the history of his club
and the league season. In the opening round on July 30, he netted the
first and, so far, last goal for his team. Not even against Cheb did any
of his teammates follow up, and so Zlin, with its three points and one
goal scored, closes its record in the highest league. On the contrary,
there is a big squeeze in the upper half of the standings: the first and
the eighth teams are only two points apart. Home teams scored in the
remaining matches : Cheb defeated Brno, Jablonec defeated Opava and
Drnovice defeated Hradec.
Results of the 11th round : Sparta - Zizkov 1:0, C. Budejovice - Olomouc
2-1, Ostrava - Slavia 1-2, Uherske Hradiste - Liberec 1-1, Plzen - Zlin
3-0, Cheb - Brno 3-1, Jablonec - Opava 2-1, Drnovice - Hradec Kralove
3-0.
The standings: Sparta 20, Liberec 20, Slavia 19, Cheb 19, Olomouc 18,
Drnovice 18, Jablonec 18, Ceske Budejovice 18, Zizkov 16, Plzen 16,
Opava 14, Brno 14, Ostrava 11, Hradec Kralove 9, Uherske Hradiste 7,
Zlin 3. David Sprincl/Jitka Motejzikova
Bomb in Stadium in Pardubice
The hockey extraleague's 15th-round match between Pardubice and Brno
was forced to finish after 56 minutes because of an anonymous telephoned
threat that a bomb was in the stadium.
Results of the 14th round:Jihlava-Vitkovice 2-2
Trinec-Pardubice 0-4
Vsetin-Litviv 7-3
Plzen-Slavia 4-9
Kladno-Zlin 4-1
Brno-C.Budejovice 1-1
Sparta-Olomouc 3-3
Results of the 15th round:Litvinov-Sparta 6-5
Vsetin-Kladno 2-2
Slavia-Zlin 2-3
Olomouc-Trinec 4-1
Plzen-Vitkovice 1-1
C.Budejovice-Jihlava 2-4
Pardubice-Brno 2:5
Adam Kotalik/Maria Tripoliti
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CORRECTION
In the article Culture Minister Accepts Resignation of Deputy Prokop,
Carolina No 175, two mistakes ocurred in the process of translation:
First, Prokop is a member of the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA),
not of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) as stated in the article;
second, Ladislav Kantor is the former Czech Philharmonic managing
director, not a Czech Film Director. We apologize for the errors.
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Edited by Michael Bluhm
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