The demonstration in support of culture was the culmination of the Days of Unrest launched by dissatisfied Prague theatre artists on May 25. The petition demands, among other things, to separate financial support of the non-profit sector from its business activities and to halt the next wave of the transformation of Prague theatres. After the Prague City Hall rejected the Initiative for Culture's petition in April theatre representatives submitted it to the City Hall again. The Prague Council rejected their demands this week and Prague Assembly members are only expected to approve the negative stance at their general meeting in June. "I hoped we would not have to meet here again," Baghdad clashes 'kill 17 gunmen' ...
Bohemian National Hall in New York to open soon ... actor Miroslav Taborsky, a petition committee member, said today. He said the demands the petition contains were legitimate and civilised.
He did not rule out further demonstrations. "We still insist that the Prague City Hall deal with the text of our petition. Last time, its members were only acquainted with the text a couple of minutes before their meeting, which contradicts the order of procedure," Initiative for Culture head Vladimir Prochazka told CTK. The nationwide Days of Unrest were staged by Prague theatre artists to express their dissatisfaction with the way the Prague City Hall finances culture and with its intention to change the status of certain state-subsidised theatres. The protest is mainly aimed against the city's policy of grant distribution, which councillor Milan Richter (Civic Democrats, ODS) is in charge of, and against what the artists call the City Hall's other "devastating" steps in the culture area. The artists demand Richter's resignation. The protest event has been joined by the National Theatre (ND) in Prague. Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) has met the directors of three Prague theatres that feel afflicted by the City Hall's new methods of grant distribution. He said that though he was not empowered to interfere with the city's cultural policy he would do his best for the problem of Prague theatres' financing to be resolved.
(Ceske Noviny)
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