Prague, Feb 15 (CTK) – TV Barrandov television will start broadcasting a discussion programme with President Milos Zeman every week as from March 16, that is one week after he is to say whether he will seek re-election in early 2018, Tyden.cz server said on Wednesday.
The programme will be moderated by the wife of Vratislav Mynar, head of the Presidential Office, Alexandra Mynarova, and journalist Petr Kolar.
TV Barrandov is owned by Empresa Media, in which the Chinese firm CEFC has a stake.
The half-an-hour progarmme with Zeman will be broadcast in prime time on Thursdays.
Before she married Mynar, Mynarova worked for the public Czech Television (CT), which Zeman and his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek have criticised in the long term. But she had to cease anchoring CT news because of her relationship with Mynar and later, she quit CT.
The new programme will be prepared by the weekly Tyden, which is also owned by Empresa Media.
Zeman has had a distant relationship with most media outlets and he has parted with the public ones.
He refuses to take part in the Sunday Questions of Vaclav Moravec on CT. He has ended the regular Talks from Lany of public Czech Radio after the radio wanted to pre-record them because of Zeman’s dirty vocabulary.
Currently, Zeman regularly appears on the Frekvence 1 radio station and he offers interviews to the tabloid Blesk.cz server.
The Chinese CEFC private company has invested more than 20 billion crowns in the Czech Republic recently.
Zeman supports Chinese investments in the Czech Republic and he attended the signing of agreements on investments and cooperation between CEFC and domestic firms.
Jaroslav Tvrdik, former defence minister in Zeman’s government (1998-2002), heads the CEFC’s European representation.
