A video of the Czech president pocketing a pen, which has gone viral on the Internet, has embarrassed a Slovak television station which branded him a kleptomaniac.
“Vaclav Klaus confessed having this deviation after cameras caught him stealing a pen at a news conference” during a recent visit to Chile, the private TV JOJ said on its website, without naming its source.
“The president has allegedly been stealing for 20 years. He could start a treatment program this month,” the news anchor said in a serious tone on the evening newscast on April 18.
Photo: Reuters
照片：路透
The Czech news site IDNES.cz said April 19 the TV JOJ report had been inspired by a story published by the Czech weekly Reflex, which mocks Klaus and which “is very clearly not an official story about the head of the state.”
IDNES.cz also quoted TV JOJ as saying it would “put things right.”
The clip in which Klaus secretly pockets an expensive pen at a joint press conference with his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera was first broadcast by Czech public television on April 10.
Since then, it has appeared on television broadcasts worldwide and generated more than 2.5 million hits on YouTube.
Klaus, a 69-year-old former economist, has been Czech president since 2003 and was prime minister from 1993 to 1997.
To add spice to its report — and still drawing inspiration from Reflex — TV JOJ said Klaus showed the first symptoms of kleptomania after the privatization of state-held companies, when he saw everyone around him stealing.
Subject to abuse by profiteers, the privatization was designed to sell shares in state-held companies to private individuals after communism collapsed in the then Czechoslovakia in 1989.
It was co-authored by Klaus.
The Czech and Slovak languages are very close, and many people in both countries speak both languages — a legacy of the Czechoslovak federation which split peacefully into two states in 1993.
(AFP)
一段捷克總統竊取一支筆的影片，在網路上像病毒般流傳開來，造成一家斯洛伐克電視台，因錯誤報導總統為一位偷竊癖，而頗為難堪。
這家民營JOJ電視台在網站上說，「在被攝影機在一場記者上捕捉到竊取一支筆後，瓦茨拉夫‧克勞斯坦承有此偏差行為。」但電視台並未提及消息來源。
這間電視台新聞主播四月十八日在晚間新聞上以嚴肅口吻報導，「捷克總統聲稱已偷竊達二十年，可能會在本月開始接受治療。」
捷克新聞網站IDNES.cz四月十九日表示，JOJ電視台的報導是取材自捷克周刊《Reflex》的一則揶揄克勞斯的文章，並且「一看就知道這不是捷克元首的正式報導。」
IDNES.cz也引用JOJ電視台的說詞表示，該台將「更正錯誤」。
克勞斯在與智利總統塞巴斯提安‧品尼拉的聯合記者會上竊取一支價格不斐的筆的影片，四月十日由捷克公共電視台首度播出。
自此之後，這段影片在全球電視台上播放，並在YouTube上有超過兩百五十萬次的點閱率。
六十九歲的克勞斯之前為經濟學家，自二零零三年起擔任捷克總統，自一九九三年到一九九七年擔任總理。
JOJ電視台還在其報導上加油添醋地說，克勞斯在國營事業私有化，看到周圍的人都在佔便宜後，他首度出現竊盜癖症狀。這段也是取材自《Reflex》。
這項私有化政策是在一九八九年捷克斯洛伐克共產主義瓦解後推行，將國有財產賣給私營個體，這也容易遭致投機商牟取暴利。
克勞斯當時是這項政策的作者之一。
捷克與斯洛伐克語言非常近似，且這兩國人都能說這兩國的語言，這是捷克斯洛伐克聯邦的一項傳奇，這兩國於一九九三年分為兩個國家。
（法新社／翻譯：林亞蒂）
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