EXCLUSION OF PRESS:CLAIMS THAT the Department of Foreign Affairs excluded Irish media from a press briefing given by the president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, at its offices on Monday have been rejected by the department.
"The decision had nothing to do with us. It was made solely by the Czechs for their own reasons," said a spokesman for the department.
He added that the authorities here would have been in favour of the Irish media having full access to all the briefings given by the Czech president during his visit, but were not in a position to insist on it.
The exclusion of the Irish media from the press briefings on Monday at the department caused difficulties in reporting the first day of the controversial visit.
Irish journalists had to rely on their Czech colleagues for Mr Klaus's version of the meetings he held on Monday, including one with Taoiseach Brian Cowen at Government Buildings.
The president told Czech journalists that he had received a strong impression from Mr Cowen that Ireland was not in a hurry to find a solution to the Lisbon Treaty referendum defeat.
The Czech journalists briefed their Irish colleagues on the president's account of the meeting and his view that the Government would not be coming forward with a solution to the treaty impasse by next month's crucial EU summit in Brussels.
In the Seanad yesterday, Senator Liam Twomey of Fine Gael asked for an explanation why the Irish media "were silenced at a press conference given in the Department of Foreign Affairs."
He said that the Mr Klaus should not be protected from the Irish media. "The more we hear about him, the better it is for all of us," said Senator Twomey.
