In the future, the Czech police would not stand helplessly outside a pub in which a neo-Nazi music group allegedly has a Samizdat editions of Lidove Noviny go online ...
Czech communist leader receives same award as Castro-press ... concert but enter it without any invitation, even if the event is declared as a private birthday party, the daily writes. The law would also allow police to freely enter any pawn shop if they suspect its owner of buying stolen mobile telephones. The law is thus expected to considerably strengthen police powers. "We expect the law to give our police the possibility of a quick intervention at the meetings staged by various extremist groups.
Police will no longer have to wait for their confidant to inform them that someone inside has violated the law," MfD quotes Interior Minister Ivan Langer (senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) as saying. However, human rights lawyer Vaclav Vlk has raised objections to the law. "I am afraid that police would be able to enter businesses at random, with a slight suspicion that they might find something there," he told the paper. Deputy Frantisek Bublan (senior opposition Social Democrats, CSSD), former Czech interior minister, has proposed that such police raids be approved by either police commander or a state attorney. Under the new law, police will not only be able to decide on their own whether to enter any private business, but also newspaper pages or TV screen as the police would be able to ask for the information they consider important to be published. The media would have, for instance, to publish an announcement that a small child got missing or that a prisoner escaped. "We do not want to control the media, but to improve our cooperation. We do not envision any fine for not-publishing of our information," Langer told MfD. However, Barbora Osvaldova from the Czech Syndicate of Journalists leadership, argues that the passage concerning the media is formulated in the law in too general terms which gives the state the possibility to claim room in the media even if there is no objective need of it. Under the new law, police would be able to enter inner premises of businesses that are banned for regular customers. The law would also allow the police to use new effective means of control such as tasers. The Interior Ministry will control whether fines imposed by the police are not too strict, the daily writes.
(Ceske Noviny)
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