People protested against the proposed heritage law

Prague - Against the proposal of a new heritage protection law, about thirty people demonstrated today in front of the Ministry of Culture. The protest was organized by associations of heritage protectors, who have long criticized the proposed regulation. The Ministry of Culture rejects their objections, stating that the law is under review and should be submitted to the government later this year. The new regulation, which will govern the area of cultural heritage, has been in preparation for nearly 20 years. According to today's speakers, the proposed law is worse than the one from 1987.
    "The socialist language of the law has long been removed by amendments; it is technically sound and it is possible to protect heritage according to it. If the system of state heritage care is unable to operate according to it, it means that the relevant people have not learned to use it to this day," said Martin Šerák from the Heritage Society of Český Krumlov.
    The Association of Societies for the Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage (ASORKD) and the Association of Professional Workers in Heritage Care (SPPPP) state that the draft law reduces the extent of heritage protection, does not define the protection of tangible cultural heritage as a public interest, and does not bring the required systematic changes. The Ministry generally dismisses the objections, often stating that the critics do not understand the law.
    Today, the organizers of the protest reminded that the law would eliminate the possibility for anyone to submit a proposal for declaring a building a cultural monument; henceforth, things or buildings would only be declared on the proposal of the ministry. In the past, however, it was often public initiatives that managed to save properties threatened by decay or interest from an investor in their demolition.
    Ministry spokesperson Simona Cigánková told ČTK today that they are currently addressing comments on the draft law. "The vast majority of significant comments have already been resolved without it being necessary to retreat from the proposed law in significant points," she stated. Talks with the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS) are still ongoing.
    "In terms of the extent of submitted comments and the sections of the law being reviewed, ČMKOS largely deviates from the comments made by other commenting bodies," said the spokesperson. "When only 26 out of 154 paragraphs of the law are not criticized, something is odd about it," the organizers of the protest stated regarding the number of comments, which exceeded 500.
    The ministry rejects the association's accusation that the proposal is only being consulted with those who agree with it and points to its website, which contains records of the meetings. MK considers the claim that the proposed law is intended to reduce the scope of heritage protection to be "outrageous." "On the contrary, the proposal responds to a number of realities that cannot be enforced in the field of heritage protection today," the ministry defends itself.
    It also denies that the law allegedly weakens the importance of the professional component in heritage care. "Unlike the existing regulation, the proposed law explicitly stipulates cases when the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) must give its opinion. According to the existing law, it suffices if 20 days elapse without a response and the heritage care authority does not extend the NPÚ's period for response," says MK.