A popular Czech pub once sold horsemeat sausage on the spot where Chao Wei Zheng's family restaurant now stands, on a busy square in the Holesovice district. For that reason, many locals weren't terribly welcoming to the Hong Kong restaurant when it first opened in 1992.

"A lot of them were very disappointed," says Peter Magurean, his eyes twinkling as he digs into delicate fried duck and kimchi, two of his favorite house specials at Hong Kong.

Magurean, who was a trade delegate to the Czech Republic for the city of Hong Kong for a decade before moving into public relations, confesses he's been a loyal customer to the restaurant since shortly after it opened. And although the front of Hong Kong stands on one of Prague 7's main squares, business seems distinctly quiet all of a sudden.

In fact, Asian restaurants all over the country have suddenly found themselves defending their reputations.

Entrepreneur Nyi Lwin, founder of the popular Thai/Burmese eatery Orange Moon, attributes the downturn to scare stories that have dominated the nightly news and headlines of Prague's main newspapers for a week. "The Czech public, when they read such articles, might be restrained from going there. I just had lunch today in one Chinese restaurant in Prague 4. Usually in that place it's quite crowded at that time. It was almost empty today."

Many such businesses, like Hong Kong, have never been found in violation of the Czech Republic's stringent restaurant standards.

But former customers seem more convinced by the flood of stories that began with a TV Nova report on an unidentified unhygienic Chinese restaurant in Kladno, central Bohemia. The Aug. 22 story was introduced by anchorwoman Lucie Borhyová announcing — incorrectly — that the Czech Trade Inspection (COI), the main state body charged with policing consumer fraud, was "inspecting all Chinese restaurants in the Czech Republic."

What followed was footage of the dirty kitchen of the restaurant, shot during a COI inspection, including an off-putting close-up of a dead mouse caught in a trap in a drawer full of utensils.

Two days later, Lidové noviny, one of the two main Czech daily newspapers, ran the headline "Dangerous Kung Pao" and a full page of stories questioning the wisdom of eating at what its reporters called exotic restaurants.

Other media followed the TV report as well, most of which were less restrained than Lidové noviny, essentially warning the public they are being fed unhygienic meals made by illegal immigrants using suspicious ingredients.

TV Nova News Director Martin Ondrácek, who acknowledges his station kicked off the spate of coverage, defends the story but attributed the anchor's inaccurate introduction to state inspectors.

"I am not absolutely sure at the moment," he said, "but I think that we got this information from the COI. I think the information that we received was that they were going to check all the Chinese restaurants."

COI spokesperson Maroslava Fléglová said the agency never announced it is targeting Chinese restaurants. She did say the agency inspected 28 restaurants "as a result of media interest," including the 25 cited in the TV Nova report, five of which were temporarily closed.

Fléglová added, "Half of the proprietors were Czech. Of course, a Czech can also operate a so-called Chinese restaurant."

The agency — whose job is to inspect for consumer fraud, not hygiene problems — responds to anonymous tips that can come in the form of phone calls or emails from just about anyone, including business rivals, Fléglová admitted.

Prague's chief restaurant hygiene authority, who was not quoted in most stories, said Tuesday that "exotic" restaurants, which he defines as "Asian, Chinese, Mexican, etc.," have been earning citations for violating regulations.

"The number of fines that exotic restaurants had to pay in the first half of 2005 — the total sum of fines paid per 100 restaurants that were checked — was higher than the number of fines imposed on other establishments," said Chief Hygienist Michael Vít, adding that 130 inspections were carried out on these businesses. "From this, it is evident that the workers of our hygienic stations discover irregularities in the restaurants of this type more often than elsewhere."

He did not immediately respond to inquiries as to how much higher the number of fines was or whether they were for problems that pose serious threats to customers, but said the inspections on the 100 foreign restaurants were among 19,790 inspections made in the first six months of the year.

Miroslava Luprichová, head of the Czech restaurant and hotel trade association Ho.Re.Ka. and a frequently quoted source in many of the stories, blames the restaurants themselves. "Everyone in the business must observe the law. ... There are seven key rules that have to be observed; for example, that every meal must be served within four hours of being cooked. Everyone has to observe it, from chains that attract hundreds of customers to stands that sell one sausage and one beer a day. The problem is that many owners of Chinese restaurants do not obey the law. The people from Asian communities often try to hide or run away."

One media studies expert detects more than concern for hygiene in the coverage and comments, however. In fact, says Jan Jirák of CEMES, the Charles University Center for Media Studies, the notion that Asians hide out from authorities is a classic cliché.

"The news value of the story was in the Chinese stereotypes or ethnic stereotypes," said Jirák.

"There are still some strange feelings toward [Asians] because people don't meet them very frequently. And this is contributed to by the media. Most of the stories are about false trademarks, low-quality goods. Asians in the press are frequently described as people who don't speak Czech and are trying to hide. You don't see stories about Asian family life. And I'm afraid this could be playing into such a story as [the one about] Chinese bistros."

Ondrácek of TV Nova rejects any bias, saying, "I refuse the idea that we can be accused of racism or xenophobia. It is the COI that decided to target these places and we just followed the story. It started with the Chinese restaurants; then they decided to check other restaurants as well — I think they label them as Oriental or exotic restaurants."

As for the anonymous tips inspectors get on restaurants, said Luprichová of Ho.Re.Ka., "There might be some jealousy or competition behind it, but I do not know anything about it and do not want to make any speculation."

The media scare is not likely to have any lasting effects on the Asian restaurant business, says Jirák, but on the other hand, xenophobic stories are not likely to disappear from the media any time soon.

Recalling a series of reports in 1999 that panicked authorities in North America when the media reported that thousands of Czech Roma, or Gypsies, were moving to Canada, Jirák said such tales appeal to the same stereotypes as the Asian food scare stories. "It reminds me quite strongly ... of the case of Czech Roma emigrating to Canada. It was also triggered by media and fueled by media itself."

And like the food story, he said, "TV Nova started it with the standard, xenophobic stereotypical infotainment, which is quite terrible."

The longtime customers of Hong Kong restaurant, at least, are not buying into the stories. Although Zheng's restaurant interior features the same dark wood-carved accents and red silk upholstery as many others do, just about any foodie or Asian cuisine fan in Prague can tell you he serves definitive Zhejiang province cuisine.

"This is a joke," says Zheng about such food phobias. "A bad joke."