Prague The Office of the President of the Republic (CPR) will not provide any information to selected media. She justified her move by fighting misinformation. The measure concerns the weekly Respekt, the servers Seznam Zprávy and Deník N and the programs of Czech Television 168 hours and Reporters of the Czech Television.
On the website of Prague Castle this was stated by the President’s Chancellor Vratislav Mynář. He justified the step by saying that some media are trying to “obtain information from the staff of the Office of the President of the Republic” in an unserious and non-standard way.
The flag of Israel now hangs in Prague Castle to support the country, replacing the EU flag |
“In accordance with the law, the Office of the President of the Republic takes care of its reputation, while the mentioned media have long and consciously disseminated information that is distorted, false and biased,” said Mynář. “In the case of providing cooperation in the form of answering questions by e-mail or telephone, CPR employees could, on the contrary, participate in damaging the good name of the Czech Republic, which is in conflict with their employment contract,” he added. According to him, in the past, KPR pointed to the “flagrant mistakes and inaccuracies” that the mentioned media reported, but their approach has not changed. He stated that by his step the CPR joined the efforts of the European Commission and the Czech government to fight against the disinformation scene.
The editor-in-chief of the weekly Respekt, Eric Tabery, is not completely surprised by the CPR’s approach; according to him, the non-communication and the effort to conceal information rather than publish it is quite great at the Castle. “On the other hand, it surprises me to the extent that the office should not allow such a thing,” he said. According to him, a similar approach is against the law and against tradition, because the office should be subject to public control.
At the same time, according to him, KPR is committing incriminations against Respekt and other media. He said that the Castle had never challenged any article of Respect in court or contacted the editors with any reservations. “And what we published turned out to be true,” he said. He therefore described the decision as an attempt to silence the media devoted to the Castle. “It is true that Respekt published a lot of things about the Castle, but holt should not do wrong, then we would not have to write about them,” he added.
“The presidency has not responded to anything yet, it seems that it will not respond further. We will be interested in them as well, they will receive questions from us, “said Jiří Kubík, editor-in-chief of the Seznam Zprávy server.
The editor-in-chief of the Deník N server, Pavel Tomášek, said that even so far their server had faced an information blockade by Prague Castle. “We rarely get answers to our questions, which we direct officially, so in this sense, nothing really changes,” he said. He added that he has not yet considered a plan of defense against Mynář’s statement. “Apart from the fact that we will continue to honestly find out essential information concerning the decision-making of the President of the Republic, his office, and inform our readers about it,” he added. He assumes that the reaction was probably triggered by a server article from this week, according to which President Miloš Zeman did not receive a secret BIS report to investigate the events in Vrbětice, although it was delivered to the Castle. According to the server, he learned the basic information only at a meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) and Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamáček (ČSSD).
Zeman met Benešová at the Castle, among other things, they allegedly dealt with the digitization of justice |
The editor-in-chief of Czech Television’s report journalism, Marek Wollner, told Czech Radio Radiožurnál that the CPR decision only states a situation that has existed for some time. “We regularly have trouble getting information from the Castle on any question we ask,” he said. At the same time, he perceives the decision as an appreciation of the work of the mentioned programs. “It’s a list of media where it’s flattering for journalists and where I don’t want to miss it, because it’s the media that’s doing critical journalism these days, which is not enough lately,” he added. Reporters of Czech Television programs will continue to try to obtain information from the Castle, according to Wollner it is their duty. He does not assume that ČT would go to court.
According to him, the media made a mistake in informing about some recent cases, such as a letter from the Chinese embassy in which the Chinese embassy in Prague responded to the intended trip of former Senate President Jaroslav Kubera (ODS) to Taiwan, or stone quarrying in Lánská a field dealt with by the police.
Mynar criticizes the media for referring to anonymous sources, calling it a way of lying with impunity. “A journalist has the right to a court to protect this source, so only a reference to an anonymous source is enough to spread disinformation,” said the chancellor.
Mynář has been the focus of media attention several times, for example in connection with the failure to obtain a security clearance, the reconstruction of his house or business activities in Auschwitz. Due to the completion of the boarding house in Auschwitz, he faces charges of subsidy fraud and damage to the financial interests of the European Union, and denies guilt.
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