arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

PRAGUE, Oct 17, 2000 -- (CTK - Czech News Agency) The Czech government is trying to criminals the anti-globalization movement because its criticism might harm it, Samantha Iyer from the Independent Media Center (IMC) Prague told CTK yesterday.

She was reacting to Premier Milos Zeman saying on television on Sunday that "international media institutions" waged a misinformation campaign about alleged police brutality during the protests against the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in late September.

Iyer said Zeman's statement that an unnamed media institution had probably jammed the police Matra communication system was ridiculous. Turning to Zeman's statement that this was an institution "with a lot of money" from unknown sources, Iyer said that IMC Prague was solely financed from the means of its members.

Most of them were foreigners who had already left the Czech Republic, she added. IMC is a global network of centers maintaining Internet pages at which anyone could publish at any time. The IMC was established in connection with the protests against WTO in Seatle last year. At present there are 39 IMC web pages across the world, Iyer said. ((c) 2000 CTK - Czech News Agency)