Kocáb does not talk to extremists

Another contribution to the topic on providing space in media to extremist opinions was brought by Michael Kocáb when he refused to come to a Senate debate. The mayor of Chomutov, Ivana Řápková, was defending in the Senate the seizing of social bonuses from fee-dodgers, a system that she had introduced in her city.

Michael Kocáb justified his decision no to participate by saying that the session was broadcasted live by the news channel ČT 24. According to Kocáb, that was a double mistake. First, we live in a "permanent pre-election agitation" and many of the debaters run for the elections in the European Parliament or are going to run as candidates in the early elections to parliament in autumn. And within a TV broadcasting, such a discussion turns into a part of a campaign. Second, the minister said, the mix of debaters was not balanced and voices with which he strongly disagrees were given too much space. Voices with racist or extremist undertones.

It's a strange situation. A public medium is broadcasting an event from parliament and a minister refuses to participate, because it is an unbalanced programme in his opinion. An objection suggests itself that by not participating he only stressed the imbalance. However, another thing is more important: the current coming of extremism may result in representatives of extremist parties getting to the parliament sooner or later. Will…