Office of the President not to apologize for President Zeman’s words

The Office of the President has filed an appellate complaint to the Supreme Court against a verdict by the Prague Municipal Court which ordered the Office of the President to apologize for President Zeman’s claim that the renowned Czech journalist Ferdinand Peroutka had written an article called Hitler is as a gentleman. The said article was never found. The president’s spokesman Jiří Ovčáček told journalists on Friday that the Office of the President would not apologize to Peroutka’s grand-daughter since such a move would mean that the Czech state accepted responsibility for the president’s words, which would set a dangerous precedent and might open the door to many other lawsuits. The deadline for the apology expired on Friday.

Jan Kysela, an expert on constitutional law, has criticized the absurdity of the situation which does not allow the president to be sued, on the grounds of his immunity, and does not allow the state, which was sued in his place, to accept responsibility for his words. He said that if an apology were to be enforced through fines, they too would have to be covered from state funds.