Even if in Roman Polanski's case the authorities made much of the principle of equal treatment regardless of the individual concerned, his release tells another story, writes the conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "The final act in the Polanski drama is entirely political - that is shown by the simple fact that the Minister of Justice delivered the message personally. At the same time the arguments being put forward are anything but strictly legal. People are now citing a certain protocol requested but not delivered by the US which until very recently even the Federal Office of Justice called of little relevance. ... Such arguments should have prevented Polanski's arrest last September. Later on one would have expected the opposite, that politics would not get caught up in an ongoing judicial assistance procedure. But it did, and intervened with the right arguments at the wrong time." (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Martin Senti

The release of Roman Polanski sends the wrong message, Artur Bartkiewicz writes in the online edition of news magazine Wprost, saying that stars shouldn't be allowed to get away with things that other people aren't allowed to do because other artists could be encouraged to abuse minors: "Polanski feels he is the victim of little people who plotted an evil conspiracy against him to bring him down from his pedestal because they envied his success. Yet he is being allowed to get away with more than other people. But Polanski is not the major issue here. After the Swiss court's ruling I think about all the stars and starlets of pop culture who will meet other 13-year-old Samantha Gaileys [Polanski's victim] in the course of their careers. What will stop them now that they know that celebrities are allowed to get off with a lot more than other people?" (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Artur Bartkiewicz

Switzerland's refusal to extradite Roman Polanski enrages Johann Hari in the liberal daily The Independent: "Roman Polanski admitted his crime before he ran away and, for years afterwards, he boasted from exile that every man wanted to do what he did. ... But this is not enough, it seems, for the Swiss government to return him to the US to face trial. They have found a legalistic loophole that enables them to let him go - while admitting "national interests" may be a factor. This may be a reference to pressure from neighbouring France to free their citizen. As a Swiss citizen, I think I can say without being offensive, we all remember the bargains Swiss governments have made in the past to preserve their "national interests". This is in a long tradition of helping criminals and calling it Swiss hard-headedness." (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Johann Hari

Roman Polanski's release is justified, the daily El Periódico de Catalunya writes, but warns that it would be a mistake to exonerate artists in general: "The Swiss decision is probably the best alternative now that Polanski has spent two months in prison and seven under house arrest. The offence was committed too long ago and even the victim has forgiven the filmmaker. But Polanski's personality unleashed reactions in France's artistic circles that appeared to absolve the director of all guilt simply because he's an artist, and which stood in stark contrast to the unanimous condemnation in other recent cases of abuse of minors. Polanski shouldn't be sent back to prison but nor should he be declared a saint." (13/07/2010)

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Islamist suicide bombers from Somalia killed at least 74 people at a public viewing of the World Cup final in the Ugandan capital of Kampala Sunday. The left-liberal daily The Guardian fears further attacks will follow if a stable government isn't established in Somalia: "Somalia has been left in the hands of 5,000 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi who support a very weak government installed in a citadel in Mogadishu. All they have at their disposal is the 'If you're attacked, shoot back' tactic and the struggle to hold the fort until the rest of the world comes to their aid. Four years after they arrived they are still holding the fort without any sign of the world coming to help them. ... More than anything else the Somalis need a functioning and capable government. In the past 20 years they have not been able to establish one. They need a lot of continual support, just like their African friends who are there to help Somalia." (13/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Africa, » Somalia
All available articles from » Nuradin Dirie

French President Nicolas Sarkozy refuted all allegations that he avoided taxes and accepted illegal party donations in connection with the Bettencourt affair in a television interview on Monday. The liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera finds his version according to which the whole affair is a smear campaign engineered by his opponents quite plausible: "The upcoming presidential election campaign allows for conspiracy theories that could have been spun by his own camp. The history of the French conservatives doesn't preclude such a scenario. ... The sparkle of times gone by can't be restored in the course of a sultry summer evening on the terrace of the governmental palace, but Sarkozy has often performed best when he has been forced into a corner from all sides. If the suspicions prove false the Bettencourt case could backfire on the website that made it public and the press that spread it." (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Massimo Nava

Never before have so many Spanish flags been flown as during the World Cup - even in Catalonia. But the World Cup victory will do nothing to solve Spain's inner conflicts, writes the left-liberal Frankfurter Rundschau: "On Saturday, the day before the triumph, tens  - some reliable sources say hundreds - of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate their Catalan identity to the world. ... The occasion for the protest was a mere bagatelle. Recently the Spanish Constitutional Court decided that certain aspects of Catalonia's new regional status were anti-constitutional. True, this will not be Catalonia's demise, nevertheless her nationalist politicians - and unfortunately also her socialists - thrive on permanent confrontation with the rest of the country. On the other side of the coin are the ultra-nationalists, who regard every desire for regional autonomy as treason against the hallowed Spanish nation. Both sides could do with a bit more serenity." (13/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Separatism, » Spain
All available articles from » Martin Dahms

The finance ministers of the Eurozone on Monday raised the pressure on the new leadership in Bratislava. Slovakia continues to refuse its support for the 750 billion euro rescue fund for Eurozone countries in crisis. The liberal daily Sme counsels the government to come to its senses: "The stability fund is not the right issue on which to test Slovakia's new Euro-realism. We may think what we please about this obligation, but we must not reject it. It's fine for [Finance Minister] Mikloš to express major criticisms of Europe's aid to Greece or the rescue plan. But he must not believe he can be the first to introduce cracks in this protective wall. On the contrary, he should think very seriously about where Slovakia's interests lie, for example in not offending Germany." (13/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Germany, » Greece, » Slovakia, » Europe
All available articles from » Peter Schutz

Commenting on the 15th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica on Sunday cultural historian Thomas van der Dunk reflects in his blog for the daily De Volkskrant on how the Netherlands deals with war missions: "We don't dare officially admit that war is an exceedingly dirty business in which 'our boys' also run huge risks. ... What always counts more than anything else are our good intentions rather than the results. ... We like to project our image of people with good intentions on others in a bid to ignore the hopelessness of certain missions. After all, we can't abandon these people to their fate, can we? This is ... once again the argument for extending the operations in Afghanistan. The painful truth however is that you can't always help, or that helping has a price - a lot more troops and many more dead soldiers - that we're not willing to pay." (12/07/2010)

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The German energy company RWE is considering withdrawing from the Nabucco pipeline project and changing to the Russian South Stream project. The daily Die Presse sees political motives behind this change of tack: "This will be a reason for former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder to rejoice. As Gazprom's European 'ambassador' he no doubt engineered the deal. The active political team, however, will howl with anger if RWE does make the switch. But it wouldn't be entirely innocent in this matter because as one of its majority shareholders the state has considerable influence at RWE. Or could it be that the economic arguments triumphed over the political ones here? … Certainly not. RWE has little to gain from joining South Stream. The pipeline is almost twice as expensive as Nabucco and RWE has long had access to Russian reserves anyway. So neither the company nor its shareholders in politics can afford to sacrifice the EU's much touted common energy policy for its sake."  (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Matthias Auer

The Russian economy is entirely dependent on the raw materials and energy sectors. Of the country's 20 most profitable companies, 12 come from these sectors, Russian business magazine Finans reports. It's high time Russia realigned its economy, the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita writes: "During the crises Brazil, China and India proved that they are able to carry out reforms even under the toughest conditions. They used the crisis to modernise their economies because everything is cheaper in times of economic downturn. The Russians however stuck to their raw materials model in the hope that the next recovery would boost demand for those materials. But this model doesn't go far enough, if only for the fact that Moscow is using these raw materials as a political weapon with the stubbornness of a madman." (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Danuta Walewska

According to unconfirmed rumours Portugal's biggest private bank BCP is on the verge of bankruptcy. Pedro Santos Guerreiro expresses his lack of understanding for all the panic mongering: "Listen up: the rumour is false. Go to your windows, look out at the street and the open doors of BCP. It's Monday and Nostradamus got his end-of-the-world prophecy wrong yet again. The bank is healthy and out of danger? Out of danger yes, but not healthy. ... The banks aren't lending each other money. This is not just a BCP problem and it's not just a Portuguese problem; it's a European problem. ... The European Central Bank is the rescuer. It lends banks money without which the economy would have come to a standstill months ago. System relevance ensures that no important bank goes bankrupt. Let the next wave of the financial crisis come if it must. There's only one way to fight the fear and the rumours: with information. And remember: it's not so long since we had the swine flu [panic]." (12/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Portugal, » Europe
All available articles from » Pedro Santos Guerreiro

Although the EU Parliament last week introduced stricter controls for bankers' bonuses. In doing so it may well be preaching to the converted the daily Göteborgs-Posten writes commenting on the results of survey by a Swedish union among bank managers: "Almost half of all respondents expressed concern that bonuses do nothing more than encourage highly visible short-term objectives. In the business world as well there is a good deal of scepticism as to the effectiveness of the bonus system. Unfortunately such feelings find no expression in public debate. Nowadays it is researchers, politicians and retired bankers who participate and say what they have to say. It's time the key players in the economy came out of their trenches." (13/07/2010)

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Nuclear physicist Georgi Kotev began a hunger strike in front of the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on Monday. The former employee at Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is protesting against the alleged illegal use of recycled nuclear fuel from Russia at the plant, which he claims the Bulgarian authorities tolerate. Ivo Inyev voices in his blog his anger at the silence of the media on this case: "Kotev is using the final resort of protest, the hunger strike, to protest against a huge crime that is not only immune to criminal investigation but is also being covered up and continued. ... Have the media reported on this? In Bulgaria silence is a weapon of evil. It is a time-honoured means of killing off criticism and critics. The mass media make themselves accomplices and obediently follow the quiet instructions of the state to silently ignore those who disagree. But they're champions at gabbing on about nonsense. The World Cup however has ended. What remains for us is the regional championship in who's best at keeping mum." (13/07/2010)

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All available articles from » Ivo Indjev

South Africa will reap long-term benefits from the recent FIFA World Cup, the daily Helsingin Sanomat writes: "A competition cannot assuage all of Africa's problems. Nevertheless it can be said that the competition has brought with it many advantages for the host country. Lasting benefits are the improved road network, brand new airports and a better public transport system. The successful organisation has improved the country's reputation, which could attract investors and tourists alike. But the biggest victory was the national solidarity that emerged during the event. All of the country's population groups mingled together regardless of their skin colour in the bleachers during the matches. South Africa seemed more closely-knit than during the first democratic elections in 1994. According to former president Nelson Mandela, sport can bring hope where there was only despair. South Africa's success has given the entire continent good reason to hope that it will host the summer Olympics in the not-too-distant future." (13/07/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Sport, » Africa