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For immediate release
Czech Constitutional Court Is Asked to Question Hillary Clinton
(Prague) ` Hillary Clinton who as the serving Secretary of State sits
on the Board of Directors of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty (RFE/RL), might be asked to testify before Constitutional Court
on employment practices of that U.S.-funded radio station in Czech
Republic.
Petition to question Hillary Clinton is submitted to Constitutional
Court by Snjezana Pelivan, Croatian citizen suing in that court U.S.
Congress-funded RFE/RL for infringement of her labor and human rights
resulting from violation by RFE/RL the legislative sovereignty of the
Czech Republic, its host country.
Armenian citizen Anna Karapetyan brought similar lawsuit against RFE/RL
earlier this month in Supreme Court. The plaintiffs, former employees
of RFE/RL, which is subordinate to Broadcasting Board of Governors in
Washington, a governmental agency overseeing all U.S. nonmilitary
international broadcasting, are suing RFE/RL for practicing national
discrimination in labor relations with its non-American and non-Czech
employees.
Broadcasting in 28 languages, the nationals of 20 RFE/RL target
countries ` Afghanistan, Armenia, fm. Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, R
ussia,
states of Central Asia, etc. ` compose the bulk of RFE/RL total
personnel in the Czech Republic. Their uniform employment agreements
with RFE/RL effectively deny them any protection of U.S. and Czech
labor laws. Official Policies of RFE/RL allow unmotivated terminations
of such foreign employees at any time for any reason without informing
them why the employment was terminated.
Czech newspaper Lidove noviny, Prague, wrote in editorial commentary
titled `Equality With Precondition. Practice of Free Europe Contradicts
Its Ideals’: `Employees are divided in three castes¦ That situation, as
it seems, is brutally abused by the management of the radio station.
With foreign employees from the third caste the propagators of
democracy deal as colonial power with rightless aborigines.’
Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is appointed by the President
`with the advice and consent of the Senate’. Secretary of State is BBG
member ex officio. By law, BBG collectively serves as RFE/RL Board of
Directors and `makes all major policy determinations governing the
operations of RFE/RL.’ Also by law, `United States international
broadcasting ¦ shall be consistent with the broad foreign policy
objectives of the United States.’
Petitioning
Constitutional Court
to question Hillary Clinton, Snjezana Pelivan notes that after Mrs.
Clinton became on January 22, 2009, the member of BBG and RFE/RL Board
of Directors, RFE/RL’s `discriminative to foreigners Policies and
practices remain the same’. Hillary Clinton’s testimony should clarify
if RFE/RL Policies, `which violate labor (employment protection) and
human rights (national equality) of RFE/RL foreign workers in the Czech
Republic and, thus, contradict Czech labor laws, are dictated by the
`broad foreign policy objectives of the United States’.’
Commenting on lawsuits against RFE/RL in Czech Republic, an Armenian
daily AZG (`People’), Yerevan, wrote recently: `These legal cases are a
stamp of shame, a stigma on the history of well-respected Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, which has supported democracy for decades.’ The
article was titled `Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Betrays Its Ideals’
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are
expected on April 4th and 5th to be in Czech Republic holding presently
rotating presidency in the Council of European Union.