News

Musicians from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra have protested against the decision by the minister of culture to appoint a new director without a proper competition for filling the post. Members of the orchestra played on the steps of the Rudolfinum with the audience including bemused tourists. They afterwards explained their belief that Minister of Culture Václav Riedlbauch abused his powers in appointing former Czech Radio director, Václav Kasík, as orchestra director. The previous director, Vladimír Darjanin, was dismissed for alleged flaws in the orchestra’s accounting.

President Václav Klaus appointed 38 new judges at Prague Castle on Wednesday. Most of the newly appointed judges, who were suggested by the Ministry of Justice, will be working at Prague city court. The gender ratio in the group was relatively balanced, with slightly more women than men. The president said that he has appointed 666 candidates to date, which means more than a fifth of the country’s judges were appointed by him. In 2005, Mr. Klaus caused a stir when he refused to appoint dozens of candidates because they were under thirty years old.

An expert confirmed on Wednesday that items confiscated during a search in the houses of four men on trial for attempted murder contain Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols. He said that the items propagated racial hatred and xenophobia, and that one of the defendants had in his possession a magazine that called for ethnic cleansing and compared Romanies to animals. The four defendants face charges of racially motivated attempted murder after a petrol bomb attack in the town of Vítkov last April that left three members of a Romany family injured. The most seriously hurt was a two-year-old girl, who suffered burns on 80 percent of her body and was at one point close to death.

Former Czech president and esteemed playwright Václav Havel is to attend the US premiere of his latest play “Leaving” at Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater with his wife Dagmar on Thursday night. The male lead is played by Oscar-nominated actor David Strathairn, the general director of the theater, Jiří Žižka, is directing the play. Mr Žižka says he first became interested in theater at the age of 15, after seeing a performance of a play by Václav Havel in Prague. Tickets for the performance have been sold out for several weeks, the theater is considered one of the city’s best. Mr. Havel will be returning to the Czech Republic after the premiere.