News

Motorists MP Filip Turek has apologised to Seznam.cz on his Facebook profile, following a court ruling over his claims that the company’s employees access users’ emails.

In the court-ordered apology, Turek also added a statement saying that Seznam and its media outlets would lose state funding for media campaigns.

Turek recently also had to apologise to the environmental organisation Hnutí Duha for previous offensive statements.

Around 200,000 cars in Czechia will have to be recalled by Volkswagen Group because of possible steering problems, with an estimated 150,000 of them produced by Škoda Auto, Czech Television reported, citing Škoda Auto.

According to earlier information, the German carmaker will have to recall around four million vehicles worldwide, including more than one million Škoda cars. Škoda Auto’s head for the Czech market, Jiří Maláček, said the required replacement of a bolt would affect the Octavia, Karoq, Kodiaq and Superb models.

The steering system of vehicles manufactured between 2013 and 2024 could fail if a bolt securing the steering mechanism breaks. The problem can be resolved by replacing it with a corrosion-resistant bolt, he said.

The government will return to a proposal to cut the number of jobs at ministries by 10 percent within the next few weeks, ANO deputy leader and Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček said on Czech Television. He said the cuts should not be made in one go, but phased out over the course of next year.

Havlíček said the government wants to economize, but stressed that the measures should not affect efficient civil servants or those who are committed to working in public administration.

According to Havlíček, an efficient way to reduce staff numbers is to merge organizations. He cited the recent merger of the CzechInvest and CzechTrade agencies as an example, which resulted in around 80 jobs being cut.

More than half of Czech workers, 56 percent, now use artificial intelligence as part of their jobs, up from exactly one third two years ago, according to a ČSOB Innovation Index survey. Those who use AI most often say it makes them more productive, while some report having more time for other activities.

At the same time, growing numbers of Czech employees are concerned that AI could take over their jobs. Forty-eight percent of respondents now have such concerns, compared with 39 percent in 2024. Among people aged 18 to 30, the figure is even higher at 57 percent, up from 53 percent two years ago.

Among those worried that AI could replace them in their current jobs, 39 percent expect this to happen within five years and 22 percent within ten years. Around nine percent say AI has already taken over their work, compared with just two percent in 2024.