Journalist Wire-Tapped. So He Says

My former colleague from Brnensky denik daily is frequently summoned by the police to testify because people (mostly third-class local politicians) sue him for his articles… For some reason the cops focus on him despite the fact that the complaints should be filed against the publisher and owner of the paper, pursuant to the Czech legislation.

The last article he has problems for was about a former communist secret police agent who is now doing pretty well in his real estate business. 

During the last testimony he managed to glance at his file and he saw a request form for court-approved “legal” wire-tapping…

I have known him for about three years and he has NEVER cooked up a story, he did not do first-hand bias stories, he did not take bribes… and now he will probably have to start taking in code languages.

According to Reporters Sans Frontiers annual Press Freedom Index the Czech Republic is fourteenth on the list. That is not bad… but Slovakia is fourth, for crying out loud, and from what I saw and experienced it should be slightly below the Czech Republic…

Do Not Buy Tram Ticket…Send SMS

Quite soon people in Brno could pay for their tram ride via SMS… This technological novelty was implemented in Prague in November. Passengers send a special-code SMS and they receive an appropriate confirmation code. When a “ticket” inspector comes the passenger can show him or her the display of the cell phone with the code…

Interesting…the problem is that technologies sometimes do not work the way they should. Several people from Prague complained that they had indeed sent the SMS but then they waited for many minutes for the code, so they had to miss several trams before they could actually board one…

The Brno city authority is still doing some feasibility study of its own. One of the reasons is that the transportation system here is called “integrated public transportation” and it consists of tram/bus/trolley transportation, commuter trains and local buses, so there are numerous combinations of tickets… Good luck in remembering all those codes…