CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A 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 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* 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 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 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. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Edited by Michael Bluhm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. The subscription is free. Comments and remarks are appreciated. Send them please to the address: CAROLINA@cuni.cz To subscribe to CAROLINA news you send an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@earn.cvut.cz The text of message for subscription of the English version must be: SUBSCRIBE CAR-ENG First name Last name or for the Czech version SUBSCRIBE CAR-CS First name Last name To delete your subscription from the list of subscribers you send the following message to the address LISTSERV@earn.cvut.cz: SIGNOFF CAR-ENG or SIGNOFF CAR-CS We ask you not to send automatic replies to our list. 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