Governor Hašek refusing to step down over press scandal

South Moravian regional governor Michal Hašek has rejected calls for him to resign from office after it emerged that he had for years been represented by a non-existent spokesperson and had paid a lobbyist 400,000 crowns annually to write laudatory articles about him on the news site Parlamentilisty.cz .The Pirates Party and the Greens called on him to resign over the matter. Hašek´s fictitious spokesperson Lucie Proutníková was a cover for lobbyist Jana Mrencová, who has been found guilty of attempting to bribe journalists. It emerged on Friday that Mrencová very likely also wrote press reports for the Communist Party under a false name.