Police raid on Czech Television was anti-constitutional - court

The verdict thus cancelled the writ issued by a Prague district court.

US judges said the investigators had not used all other means with which to gain the necessary information.

About ten military police officers, masked and with automatic rifles, stormed the CT's news building on March 11, 2011, in search of the military intelligence's (VZ) file that was linked to the controversial departure of former VZ head Miroslav Krejcik a few years ago and that was presented by reporter Karel Rozanek in the CT newscast.

The police confiscated the things of three reporters, but did not find the document they looked for. They later returned the things.

The US ruled that given the state of the investigation, the search in the TV building had not been necessary.

"Law-enforcement bodies did not use all the means at their disposal to acquire enough information to find out who was the source of the leak of the secret information," judge-rapporteur Jiri Nykodym said.

In a previous check, the state attorney's office concluded that the intervention was inappropriate.

The military police also confiscated documents unrelated to the investigation.

The military inspection found out that the police had not proceeded along the valid regulation.

After the criticised raid, some personnel changes were made in the military police and the unit in question was disbanded.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz