Paris, Jan 28 (CTK) – The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) NGO calls on the Czech authorities to condemn the Saturday physical violence against journalists by members of the re-elected President Milos Zeman’s staff, because this has noting to do in a democratic society, the RSF announced on Sunday.
“We strongly condemn the attacks against several journalists as President Zeman’s victory was being announced,” said Pauline Ades-Mevel, the head of RSF’s EU-Balkans desk.
“It is unacceptable that the supporters of a political leader of this level physically assaulted journalists who were just doing their job, which is to report the news. Such behaviour is unworthy of a democracy and the Zeman camp must publicly condemn this violence,” she added.
A clash between people from Zeman’s election staff and reporters occurred in Prague’s Top Hotel after Zeman left on Saturday night. The reporters were shooting and photographing the collapse of a man in the hotel who was treated by the Prague Emergency Service later.
People from Zeman’s team were ordering the reporters out of the room, attacking them physically and calling them names, shows a video recording that Seznam Zpravy server reporter Pavlina Kosova released on Twitter.
The Prague police started investigating the incident. There is no legal qualification of this skirmish yet, the police tweeted on Sunday.
Zeman, 73, won the weekend presidential runoff with 51.4 percent of the vote, beating academic Jiri Drahos (48.6 percent), and he will remain head of state for another five years.
