MPs want defamation of president punishable by year in prison

Sixty MPs have proposed making public defamation of the Czech president a crime punishable by up to a year in prison. The proposal has the backing of deputies from the Social Democrats, ANO, the Communist Party and Dawn. Social Democrat Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka dismissed the idea, saying it would lead to the law being used in political battles; MPs should focus their energies on dealing with other matters, he said. The bill’s drafters say that defaming the president was illegal in the interwar First Republic. It was also banned under the communist regime before being removed from the statute books in the 1990s.

Author: Ian Willoughby