News

The Czech National Bank left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, in a move which was widely predicted. This means that the overnight discount rate for commercial bank loans will stay at 3.75 percent. The national bank last raised interest rates at the beginning of last month. Despite a 1.25 percent rise in interest rates in the last year, the Czech Republic still has the lowest rate of interest in the entire European Union.

As of April, cyclists will be able to take their bikes onto Prague’s trams, the city’s Public Transport Company announced on Wednesday. Up until now, cyclists have only been able to take their bikes onto the city’s metro trains. The service will be provided to cyclists for free, but will only function from eight o’clock in the evening until five in the morning during the week, and all day at weekends. Cyclists will only be able to take their bikes with them on certain routes as well. The idea will be tested until the end of this year, at which point the Prague Transport Company will decide whether to expand upon the scheme.

Seven Czech artists who pirated a television broadcast to superimpose images of a nuclear explosion on images of a tourist resort in the Krkonoše mountain region, were acquitted of scaremongering charges on Tuesday. The judge said that the images did not resemble a real nuclear explosion and could not have been taken seriously. The members of the Ztohoven group of artists who hacked into the live broadcast by public broadcaster Czech Television in June last year, pleaded not guilty. Before the trial, they expressed surprise that Czech Television had decided to press charges over their stunt. The group has previously made headlines by transforming a giant neon heart sign over Prague Castle into a question mark and by hijacking posters in the Prague metro to promote their own impromptu art shows.

Czech politicians have denounced an offer by the ultra-right National Party to place a controversial anti-Islamic film on its web site, calling it irresponsible and foolhardy. The film by the Dutch ultra-right MP Geert Wilders describes the Koran as a fascist book that teaches intolerance and provokes violence. Dutch TV channels have refused to broadcast it and the Dutch authorities fear that it could stir up violent protests in the Muslim world. Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer said the offer had been made by a group of ignorant fools and expressed the hope that they would not be taken seriously. Opposition politicians likewise distanced themselves from the National Party’s activities, noting that they were only doing their best to get noticed.