After a ruling of the Prague municipal court, the Ministry of Finance had to issue a formal apology to Terezia Kaslová. Credit: Vlada.cz.
Czech Rep, Nov 9 (BD) – The Prague Municipal Court has ruled that the Czech state must apologize to Terezia Kaslová, grand-daughter of Ferdinand Peroutka, for the comments of President Milos Zeman.
In 2015, President Zeman made two false statements about an article entitled “Hitler is a gentleman”, which he claimed was written by Ferdinand Peroutka, one of the best-known journalists of his generation in Czechoslovakia.
At the time, the president and his spokesperson refused to retract the inflammatory claims, triggering a legal dispute that ended only last week, when the Prague court ruled that an official correction and apology should be sent to Terezia Kaslová, grand-daughter of the famous journalist.
The statements
On January 27th, 2015, on the occasion of the day of remembrance and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Zeman declared: “One of the greatest Czech journalists, Ferdinand Peroutka, published an article in the prestigious Přítomnost magazine entitled “Hitler is a gentleman”.
In a press conference one week later, the President reiterated this statement, prompting Terezia Kaslová, the journalist’s grand-daughter, to launch legal proceedings.
On November 5th, the Czech state, represented by the Ministry of Finance, officially apologized for the statements.
