European press review

Many of Europe's dailies continue to be concerned about a potential link between the use of depleted uranium munitions and illnesses among soldiers who served in the Balkans and the Gulf. While most demand an investigation, some go further and say that such weapons should be banned.

Views differ on how to interpret the continuing row between employees and management at Czech public television

And in France, a plucky cartoon hero celebrates his 40th anniversary.

Lethal munitions

Berlin's Die Welt says reports about soldiers who served in the Balkans falling ill with leukaemia are to be taken seriously.

The paper quotes a Swiss study as saying that soldiers who have touched ammunition debris may have exposed themselves to some risk.

"Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping would therefore be well-advised," the paper concludes, "to widen medical check-ups for the soldiers concerned."

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau warns that the population condemned to live in areas that may be contaminated with radiation must not be forgotten.

The paper recalls that Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping argued in favour of Nato air strikes with what it calls "an irritating level of commitment".

"Therefore", it says, "he has taken on political responsibility for the aims, duration and nature of this action."

For Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung the potential for civilian suffering is reason enough to call for a complete ban on uranium-depleted ammunition.

The paper points out that the Geneva Convention prohibits the use of cruel weapons and the victimization of the civilian population.

"What word other than cruel is appropriate," it asks, "when radioactive, highly toxic heavy metal is fired into the countryside by the ton, not in depopulated regions but on roads, fields and villages where people are supposed to live and drive again?"

Budapest's Magyar Hirlap concludes about the Balkan syndrome that it has again been proved that "there is no such thing as clean war".

Although the paper admits that the link between the former soldiers' leukaemia and the use of depleted uranium is "not yet a certainty, only a suspicion", it concludes that "there is no war without paying the price".

The paper also reminds the reader of the Bosnian, Albanian, Serb and other victims, many of whom were killed by "simple lead" bullets.

Another Hungarian daily, Nepszava, finds the Hungarian authorities' silence over the Balkan syndrome alarming and envies the West for the way it admits its doubts over earlier reassurances.

"In that part of the world self-criticism is not a matter for shame", the paper says.

"They have known for a long time that citizens are not subjects. Unfortunately, this knowledge has not yet reached us", the paper says.

Vienna's Die Presse is perhaps more cynical than the Hungarian press.

It says that despite assurances by experts that radiation given off by depleted uranium is below danger levels, too many questions remain unanswered.

"Questions and yet more questions, and little willingness to answer them," it says, "One cannot avoid drawing parallels with the BSE scandal - in both cases there are powerful lobbies which have no interest in the case being resolved."

The paper says that the long latency period could mean there is still worse to come for Yugoslavia and the soldiers who served there.

Madrid's El Pais carries a front-page photograph of a Portuguese soldier measuring radioactivity levels in the town of Klina, in Kosovo.

The paper says that a health official from the Spanish Ministry of Defence has attributed to what he called "natural causes" the various cancers developed so far by six Spanish soldiers who served in the Balkans.

Speaking freely

Slovakia's Novy Cas is concerned about recent events in the neighbouring Czech Republic, notably in its public service television, whose staff are staging a protest against the station's new head, Jiri Hodac, who they say is a political appointment.

The daily draws a parallel between the so-called normalization period immediately after the 1968 Russian invasion, when no effort was spared to suppress the freedom of speech, and the present situation when a handful of journalists is gathering large public support to protect non-political and unbiased reporting.

The whole case shows, Novy Cas concludes, "that the Czech Republic has still not rid itself of the communist past".

But Budapest's Nepszava calls on the Hungarian public to learn from the mass demonstration in Prague for press freedom.

According to the paper, people in the Czech Republic have understood that political control over the media leads to "the end of democracy".

According to the paper, the use of public service media for party political purposes is also practised in Hungary but "apart from some grumbling, nobody does anything against it".

The paper also warns that a bill submitted to parliament by a government party deputy plans to curb press freedom even further. If the bill is approved, the press and the media will be obliged to publish reactions to any opinion disliked by those concerned.

Napoleon's ghost haunts Russia

An editorial in Paris's Le Monde says that a "spectre haunted the former Soviet Union, the spectre of Bonapartism", which the paper defines as a military takeover of power.

"Post-communist Russia is certainly not threatened by an army takeover, even though the former KGB colonel Vladimir Putin has given servicemen a more and more important role in the country's political and administrative structures," it says.

"The administrative control of the country by officers shows, if such was needed, that Vladimir Putin only has limited confidence in the democratic institutions," it says, "but at the same time the president is grudgingly instituting an authoritarian system, due to a lack of resources as well as conviction."

The paper says that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has been on a private visit to Moscow, "will encourage his Russian counterpart to turn resolutely towards Europe".

"However, the rampant Bonapartism which is being installed in Russia doesn't augur well," it concludes.

Swiss say yes to Europe... eventually

With Switzerland due to vote on 4 March on a proposal that the country should start negotiations on EU membership, Geneva's Le Temps publishes the results of an opinion poll on the matter.

And the accompanying headline, "The Swiss say 'Yes to Europe!' But not for 4 March", shows they support the idea for the long, if not the short-term.

"Of the 1,000 people interviewed, 45% announced their intention to vote yes, 46% will say no," it says.

The paper says that the no vote will win because "the Europhiles have a lot more young people in their ranks, who are more likely not to vote than their elders".

But the paper says that the people behind the proposal are not heading towards permanent defeat, adding "our opinion poll shows that, in the long term, a majority of Swiss people agree with them".

The Gaul of it!

Le Figaro in Paris serves up another exclusive in the form of that most famous of Gauls, Asterix.

With the 31st Asterix album due to be published on 14 March, and the comic hero celebrating his 40th birthday this year, the paper is starting a series on "Asterix's year" by exclusively publishing excerpts from the new book and some previously unpublished drawings.

It gives over a large part of its front page to a drawing of the moustachioed warrior and a piece by his surviving creator, Albert Uderzo, who explains that Asterix was first published in a comic intended to fight back against the invasion of American comics.

He adds "I still get enormous pleasure from making these little cartoon guys, who have only ever had one worry which is to try and amuse you, live again".

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.