The Czech Republic is reverting to a counterintelligence state with passage in the lower chamber of Parliament yesterday of an amendment to the penal code for making unauthorized activity for a foreign power a criminal act. Do the 99 coalition MPs who voted for this law fully realize what it means? The legislative change is so vague that it could probably be used against almost any of them if they dared to cross the intelligence services in some way. Czech MPs are able to join more than 70 friendship groups with foreign parliaments, which makes contact with representatives or agents of foreign powers nearly unavoidable. In the legislative-review process for a similar bill, the office of the supreme state prosecutor said that it agrees with the wording, because it builds on existing legislation and makes it possible to punish other acts that haven't been punishable so far. Outright spying is of course already illegal; this new change reinstates the arbitrariness that made the StB so tyrannical.