International human rights organisations have long demanded that the Czech Republic abolish articles of its criminal code which deal with "verbal crimes", pointing out that abuse of such articles might led to serious infringement of the freedom of the press. This case of harassing Jana Bobošíková shows that the danger is real.

Bobošíková is being accused of "spreading untrue information" by mentioning, on her programmes, that the Czech Catholic Party (KDU-ČSL) maintains very friendly relations with the Sudeten German "Landsmannschaft", an organisation defending the rights of those Germans, who were expelled from Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War. According to the complaint lodged against her, Bobošíková has implied in her questions that Czech Catholic politicians attend the annual conferences of the Sudeten Germans and that "the Czech Catholics and the Sudeten Germans have the same interest in 'restitution rights'" i.e. the return of formerly confiscated property in Czechoslovakia to their Catholic and German owners. (The Sudeten German Lansmannschaft is based in Munich, a Catholic stronghold.) The police has also questioned top officials and MPs from the Czech Catholic Party as witnesses. They confirmed that they have indeed attended the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft conference, but "in a private capacity".

The Czech police have warned Bobošíková that if she publicises her case in the media, a court can issue an injunction which might ban her from appearing on television.

Using - unverified - transcripts of her television programmes, the police investigator was trying to find out "what she meant" by various questions that she asked the politicians she was interviewing.

One of the "subversive" questions that Bobošíková has asked on her programme contained the assertion that the Catholic Church concluded a concordate with Hitler in the 1930s. The investigating police officer demanded that she should prove "that the Catholic Church has concluded a concordate with Hitler". Bobošíková referred him to encyclopaedias and textbooks of modern history.

Here are a few other questions, asked of Bobošíková during the police interrogation:

"Why did you begin your programme on 19th May 2002 with the following sentence: 'What did the mass, celebrated by the Jan Graubner, the Bishop of Olomouc [Czech city] at the Sudetengerman Landsmannschaft conference look like?' Why did you say this and what did you mean by this?"

"What were you thinking about when you were asking questions relating to the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft during your programme?" Bobošíková reminded the investigating police officer that she can hardly be charged for her thoughts.

The whole incident may well be regarded as a incompetent attempt by the Prague police to harass an independent journalist. Nevertheless, it has serious implications: it is a precedent and it means that any journalist can now be taken in by the police for questioning and asked "what they meant" by posing certain political questions. Bobošíková believes that the incident is a result of political intrique, at a time when the Czech government is trying to strengthen its control over the Czech media.

Bobošíková is a high-profile journalist in the Czech Republic. She is one of the few local journalists capable of asking hard hitting questions during television programmes. For years, she fronted a current affairs programme on public service Czech TV, in 1998 she was forced to leave Czech TV for political reasons. In December 2000 - 2001 she participated in an unsuccessful attempt to modernise and professionalise Czech public service TV from the outside aligning herself with Jiří Hodač, a newly appointed Chief Executive a former BBC journalist of 11 years. This attempt provoked a rebellion at public service TV from its employees who feared the new professional environment and the reformers were forced to back down.

Over the past two years or so, Bobosikova has been fronting a regular weekly political discussion programme on Nova TV, a Czech commercial TV station. Recently, its controversial chief executive Vladimír Železný has been removed as a result of the pressure of the Czech government and while this development may be seen as positive, there are fears that the Czech government will now exercise undue influence over Nova TV.

Bobošíková has given an extended interview about her police interrogation to the Czech internet daily Britské listy, which was published on 2nd June, 2003, see HERE (in Czech).