On February 27, 2023, the District Court for Prague 4 continued hearing the case of former journalist Jana Peterková, who is accused of spreading alarmist news. According to the indictment, she lied about the deaths of seniors after being vaccinated against covid-19. She is also indicted for saying that the Czech Republic will be occupied by NATO troops with the aim of exterminating the Czechs.
Prague – Today, the court sentenced former journalist Jana Peterková to a two-year suspended sentence with a three-year probationary period for spreading alarmist news. In the videos she posted on social networks during the coronavirus pandemic, the woman talked about the drastic investigation and treatment of children in hospitals, forced vaccination against covid-19 or the occupation of the Czech Republic by NATO troops. Peterková pleaded not guilty at the trial, and appealed the decision on the spot .
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According to the indictment, 46-year-old Peterková spread false alarm reports in several videos she published on social networks. For example, she stated that NATO troops will occupy the Czech Republic and will shoot at children who want to go to playgrounds. She also claimed that she would shoot anyone who refused to be taken for mandatory coronavirus vaccinations.
In other recordings, according to the prosecutor, the former journalist talked about seniors dying from covid-19 vaccines, that healthy people lie in hospitals for a fee or about drastic examinations of children. She called government officials fascists.
“In this case, it has nothing to do with activism,” declared Senate President Dušan Doubek. According to him, the former journalist really stated conscious falsehoods in the videos, which a part of the population believed. The judge imposed the sentence at the very bottom of the criminal rate. he explained it mainly by Peterková's previous integrity. “It was not possible to impose a sentence below the criminal rate,” he said. He added that the woman committed the act during the epidemic.
The public prosecutor proposed to impose an educational two-year suspended sentence on Peterková. He pointed to the former journalist's statements about the arrival of American tanks or the taking of children for vaccination. “In any case, this is alarming news,” he said. He recalled that they shot the videos during the state of emergency. According to the indictment, the woman faced up to eight years in prison.
Petrková, on the other hand, insisted in court that it was not her, but the then government officials, who deliberately lied to the people. “It is not me, but the government of Andrej Babiš, who spread alarmist news,” she declared. She added that she made the videos as a scared mother whose children could not go to school. Also, according to her lawyer, the former journalist did not knowingly lie, but sincerely believed her statements. In addition, during the pandemic, according to him, it was not always clear which information was relevant and which was already misinformation. He therefore requested that the court acquit his client of the charges.
Last January, Peterková was fined 250,000 crowns by the court for lying about the deaths in the home for the elderly. According to the Aktuálně.cz server, the woman was part of a group of people who spread misinformation about covid-19 and vaccination against this disease or attacked health workers. The woman has been subject to several foreclosures and has requested financial donations for her events from people who watch her videos on the Internet.
