President expects John to leave lower house

Prague, Nov 1 (CTK) - Czech President Vaclav Klaus is very surprised at the fact that opposition Public Affairs (VV) chairman and deputy Radek John did not leave the Chamber of Deputies after he decided to work in the media, Klaus told reporters yesterday.

He added that he automatically expected John to end as a deputy after returning to his profession of a journalist.

However, Klaus refused to assess whether it would be possible to combine both professions.

"When I was reading the text message on my mobile phone (about John's decision to become a journalist) it would never cross my mind that he would continue working as a deputy," Klaus said.

John announced on Wednesday that he would not lead the VV any longer as he would work as a journalist for the publishing house of media mogul Jaromir Soukup.

He said he had singed a contract with Empresa Media publisher's and that he was going to write texts on "the mafia tentacles stealing public money in the country."

According to Mediar.cz server, John will be mainly preparing a for Barrandov television station a programme similar to "With Own Eyes," an investigative series of which he was a co-founder and which he was preparing on Nova television for two years in the past.

John will not probably be doing investigative journalism for Tyden weekly that Empresa Media also issues as was reported earlier yesterday.

John reiterated at a press conference yesterday that he cannot see any problem in his keeping his deputy's mandate and heading the lower house defence and security committee. He will not leave the Chamber of Deputies, he noted.

Deputies from other parties have criticised his step as a conflict of interest and become nervous, which he considers positive, he said.

"The politicians who were stealing and committing frauds are rightfully scared," said John.

John has received some 30 job offers but only Tyden enabled him to combine the work of a journalist and a deputy, he added.

John openly admitted that he might have a competitive advantage in access to information compared to other reporters.

He dismissed the accusation that he would abuse and release classified information.

The VV leadership respects John's decision.

It agreed that an election congress would be held at the beginning of 2013 to choose a new leader, VV deputy group head Katerina Klasnova told CTK.

TOP 09 and Mayors deputy group head Petr Gazdik yesterday called on John to give up his deputy's mandate over his work for the media. John should at least resign as head of the defence and security committee since he has been incompetent in the post for long, Gazdik added.