http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?id=20050817E01372;story=New-law-to-regulate-and-ban-tehcno-music-raves
(PDM staff with CTK) 18 August – The Interior Ministry has prepared a bill determining specific rules for staging raves and similar events. The bill will require organisers to inform local authorities about the their events before they are scheduled, Pravo reported yesterday. The proposed bill is a reaction to the recent CzechTek rave staged in west Bohemia in late July. The rave was violently dispersed by police and nearly 100 people injured, including police and techno fans.
Pravo says that the new law would apply to event lasting more than 24 hours during which “other people can be disturbed above the standard level” and which are attended by over 500 people or, according to the bill’s second version over 1,000 people.
According to the bill, organisers would have to provide details to town and regional office concerning the event’s purpose and programme; the venue and dates, as well as the expected number of participants. Organisers would also have to provide documents proving that property owners whose land is being used for the event have issued the necessary approvals. Signed permits would also have to be obtained from health inspectors, firemen and environmentalists before an event such as a rave could take place.
Moreover, a rave organiser would have to be over 18 let and a Czech or a foreign citizen or a legal entity with residence in the Czech Republic.
The bill states that under certain circumstances the municipal authorities can ban such events if they deem it a threat peace, property or state security.
Organisers will have the right to appeal the ban on the planned event in the courts which will be obliged to issue a decision within three days after an appeal is made.
If the rave organisers or participants go ahead with a rave that has been banned, they will face a fine of up to CZK 50,000. Participants in a banned or unreported rave-like event would face a fine of up to CZK 10,000, Pravo says.
Organisers of regularly scheduled rock shows or other festivals will not be affected by the law as it does not apply to events that have been traditionally held in the same site year after year.
The law also does not concern culture and sport events held in closed venues.
CTK news edited by the staff of the Prague Daily Monitor, a Monitor CE service
