President refuses to grant Mf Dnes and Lidové noviny interviews

Prague, March 10 (CTK) - New Czech President Milos Zeman will not give summarising interviews to the dailies Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) and Lidove noviny (LN), he said on Prime Television yesterday, but did not state any reason..

He said he will not reject the offers of public media through which he would inform citizens of his activities.

Zeman said he had discords with MfD already during his premiership (1998-2002) and he criticised MfD and LN during the direct presidential campaign.

Their editors-in-chief of the two dailies told CTK yesterday that they believe that Zeman will not eventually completely shun their papers. They said they do not know what particular reasons Zeman has for his statement.

"When the Party of citizens Rights of Milos Zeman (SPOZ) waw running in the (2010) general election and when Zeman was running for president, he always gladly came for a talk. Media were good for him then. Now he is trying to undermine the trustworthiness of the media because he is afraid they could complicate his rule," LN editor-in-chief Dalibor Balsinek told CTK.

Neither he nor MfD editor-in-chief Robert Casensky think that Zeman will entirely shun their dailies.

"I am inclined not to believe that particularly Milos Zeman would want to avoid our editors'possible critical questions," Casensky said.

"I remember Jiri Paroubek (former Social Democrat, CSSD) chairman, who just before the general election said he will not talk to some papers, including LN. But after some time he found out that this actually harms him in the first place," Balsinek said.

Zeman said he also wants to inform people of his work in the squares of towns on his tours of regions.

"I would like people to come to meetings with me voluntarily. This can be attained if you invite them to squares," he said during the election campaign in January.

Zeman said yesterday he addressed people in 14 squares during the campaign.

He said he wants to follow up his predecessor Vaclav Klaus's regular visits to regions and added that he would further extend these trips "at the cost of foreign journeys."

"I would stay in the region for two to three days which would allow me to meet both successful businesspeople as well as successful mayors, important personalities of the region," Zeman said.

He confirmed that he will make the first trip to the Zlin Region in south Moravia (where he has many supporters).