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Alert

CPJ protests prosecution of broadcast journalist

(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a CPJ letter to Prime Minister Milos Zeman:


20 December 1999

His Excellency Milos Zeman
Prime Minister
Urad vlady Ceske Republiky
nabrezi Edvarda Benese 4
118 01 Praha 1
The Czech Republic
Fax: +4202 231 2358

Your Excellencies:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by the criminal prosecution of broadcast journalist Zdenek Zukal for allegedly making false accusations against public officials. If he is found guilty on all three charges filed against him, Zukal could be jailed for up to nine years.

On 13 December 1999, the Czech state attorney’s office charged Zukal, the owner and director of private TV Studio ZZIP in the town of Olomouc, with falsely accusing local law enforcement officials of corruption and links with organized crime in a series of investigative reports broadcast on TV Nova in 1997. Zukal faces one count of "assisting in the criminal act of false accusation" under Articles 10.1 and 174.1 of the Czech Penal Code, and two counts of making false accusations under Article 174.1 of the same code.

Each count carries a maximum three-year jail sentence. Prosecutors informed Zukal his trial will likely begin in February.

Local police in Olomouc have harassed Zukal and his staff since his first report on police corruption aired nationwide on TV Nova in April 1997. He was first arrested on 24 April 1997 and charged with "spreading false rumors" under Article 160.1 of the Czech Penal Code. The charges were dropped in November of that year, however, after the investigator found no evidence to support this charge.

Zukal was again arrested on 5 January 1998, in connection with a 19 November 1997 report on TV Nova’s evening news in which he attempted to prove that Vladimir Pryzna, a top local police investigator, had accepted a bribe from a local businessman wanted on charges of fraud and currency counterfeiting. Zukal was charged with criminal libel.

In February 1998, President Vaclav Havel issued an amnesty that included those accused of criminal libel, so the police altered the charge to "making false accusations." The police concluded their investigation in November 1999, when they submitted a 1,000-page file on Zukal to the state attorney’s office, which decided to press charges. Zukal may be forced to represent himself during the trial, as he has run out of funds to pay an attorney.

As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to defending the rights of our colleagues around the world, CPJ feels strongly that no journalist should be jailed or harassed for what he or she writes. Furthermore, we believe that in a democracy, public officials must submit to journalistic scrutiny without recourse to criminal prosecution. We believe that your government’s decision to press criminal charges against Zukal violates international law and can only have a chilling effect on investigative journalism in the Czech Republic.

We urge your Excellency to ensure that all charges against Zukal are dropped. We further urge you to bring the Czech Republic’s legal system into line with international press freedom standards by working for the repeal of all statutes that criminalize journalism.

Sincerely,

Ann K Cooper
Executive Director

cc. Alexander Vondra, Czech Ambassador to the U.S. John Shattuck, U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic

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Appeals To

His Excellency Milos Zeman
Prime Minister
Urad vlady Ceske Republiky
nabrezi Edvarda Benese 4
118 01 Praha 1
The Czech Republic
Fax: +4202 231 2358

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