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07/15/2009
Jiří Janeček has been re-elected head of Czech Television, the country’s leading public broadcaster. A former journalist who worked in Czech TV’s news department, Janeček took over the station’s management in 2003. He defended his post by emphasizing the station’s balanced budget, a successful transfer to digital broadcasting and more quality programmes.
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07/15/2009
Nearly a fifth of Czech firms are considering moving their headquarters or production abroad and most of them are looking to the East mainly due to the cheaper labour costs, according to a poll conducted by the Czech Business Chamber among some 800 firms. Others are considering a move to countries such as Great Britain or the Netherlands in search of more advantageous tax legislation and a generally more friendly business environment. Companies that are feeling the pinch of the crisis have registered a drop in demand and are trying to find other ways of cutting costs. The textile, clothing and glass industries are particularly hard hit by the strong crown and cheap competition from Asia. For example, matches producer Solo Sirkárna has already relocated its production abroad and Koh-i-noor Sušice, a leading Czech pencils producer, has moved to Asia.
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07/15/2009
The Temelin nuclear power plant in south Bohemia said on Wednesday its second unit had been reconnected to the grid after nearly a three-month planned shutdown during which experts reconstructed the low pressure turbines and upgraded the fuel charging machine. They also took a series of technical measures to enhance the reliability of the equipment. The power plant was to raise the unit's output to 80 percent in the course of the day. The first unit is running at planned output.
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07/15/2009
Heavy rain and windstorms disrupted rail traffic in the southern and central parts of the Czech Republic on Wednesday morning, the ctk news agency reported. Trains in the affected areas were frequently brought to a standstill due to fallen trees, resulting in widespread delays of up to two hours. No accidents have been reported. Meteorologists have issued a 24 hour alert, predicting torrential rain in places, hailstones and the danger of small-scale local floods.
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07/14/2009
Ottawa has introduced a visa requirement for Czech visitors, in response to a rise in the number of Czech Romanies applying for asylum in Canada. The Canadian immigration ministry informed Prague of the move on Monday night. The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, called Canada’s step unilateral and unfriendly, while his government reacted quickly, recalling the Czech ambassador to Canada for consultations and announcing plans to impose visa requirements on Canadian diplomats and civil servants.
The European Commission said it would not heed a Czech call for all EU states to impose a visa restriction on Canadians in solidarity with the Czech Republic. A spokesperson said the Commission regretted Canada’s decision and hoped it would be a temporary measure.
In the first half of this year Czech Romanies filed 1,720 asylum applications in Canada, twice as many as for the whole of 2008. They say they suffer discrimination in their home country, a claim backed by human rights groups.
Canada introduced a visa requirement for Czechs in 1997 following an influx of asylum seekers, before dropping the measure a decade later.
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07/14/2009
The head of the Social Democrats, Jiří Paroubek, has reacted angrily to criticism he has faced over a trip he made to Moscow last month. He was reported to have held talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin without informing Czech diplomats in Moscow or the foreign ministry in Prague. In a statement, however, Mr Paroubek said that the Czech embassy in the Russian capital had not offered him any help. He said that they could at least have seen Mr Putin at close quarters, which the Czech ambassador Miroslav Kostelka had not often done during three years in Moscow.
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07/14/2009
One of the most successful figures in the history of Czech show business Karel Gott is celebrating his 70th birthday. The singer, who is also popular in such states as Germany and Russia, is reported to have sold over 30 million albums in a career spanning five decades. On Monday night the man dubbed the golden voice of Prague held a birthday party at a hotel on Wenceslas Square attended by over 1,000 people, including many well known figures from Czech music and society.
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07/14/2009
The Christian Democrats have signed a pre-election pact with the European Democrats under which the two parties will contest early elections in October together, their leaders Cyril Svoboda and Jana Hybášková said in Prague on Tuesday. Candidates from the relatively small European Democrats are set to appear on the lists of the Christian Democrats, who are currently the fourth biggest party in the lower house. Some senior figures from the Christian Democrats recently left to form a new party, TOP 09.
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07/14/2009
The ombudsman Otakar Motejl has said overcrowding in Czech prisons could lead to an increase in tension and violence. In a report posted on his official website, he warned against a reduction in the number of employees in the Czech prison services. Mr Motejl said overcrowding could threaten the rehabilitation aspect of incarceration. The ombudsman’s office monitored the situation in Czech prisons at the request of the head of the country’s prison services.
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07/14/2009
Police have filed charges against a man who let off a hand grenade in a restaurant in Prague last week. The man could face up to eight years in jail after deliberately pulling the pin out of a grenade in the pub U Českého lva on Thursday. Four people were injured in the blast, while the accused sustained a serious injury to his left leg. No motive has yet been established, police said.
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