Prague, May 12 (CTK) – A specialised Centre for Terrorism and Hybrid Threats will start operating at the Interior Ministry as of next year, Minister Milan Chovanec said at a conference discussing the first results of the country’s security audit completed at the prime minister’s initiative.
The planned centre will include about 30 experts with the task of, for example, to prevent the spread of untrue information and propaganda, Chovanec said in a press release.
Some of its experts will focus on analysing disinformation released by open sources, including social networks, and their refuting, he said.
“The audit has shown that the state must have a centre to comprehensively monitor terrorist and hybrid threats and foreign power propaganda,” Chovanec said.
As an example of a hybrid threat, he gave the self-named Islamic State endangering the fundamental interests of the Czech state and society.
“We want to form a new, small section at the ministry that would deal with the issue on the top level,” Chovanec said.
He said the staff will be civilian employees of the ministry.
“I do not want them to include police or intelligence officers,” he said but added that the centre would cooperate with intelligence services.
Another new element within the defence against terrorism might be the National system of soft targets’ protection, Chovanec continued.
Soft targets are the places where numbers of people gather, such as shopping centres, universities, big plants, and also important infrastructure points that ensure the distribution of electric energy or water, Chovanec said.
Within this system, the state would provide methodical advice to private subject on how to improve their resistance to attacks. The subject would pay for the relevant measures by themselves, as the system would not include any state financial help.
Both projects are the first results of the national security audit for which Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka asked the Interior Ministry several months ago.
Apart from the audit, Sobotka called for a further increase in the capacities of the police, military and intelligence, and an improvement of the protection of the country’s international airports.
Chovanec said the biggest threats the Czech Republic is faced with are extremism, migration and also the lack of water as a result of droughts.
After being completed, the security audit will have 11 chapters focusing on particular threats. Five of them have been preliminarily closed for the time being. They focus on extremism, terrorism, security aspects of migration and anthropogenic and natural threats.
The audit of the remaining six areas is to be completed by the end of the summer before the material is submitted to the government.
rtj/dr/pv
