Žatec – the home of hops Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:39:18 +0100
For centuries, the northern Bohemian town of Žatec has been the centre of hops growing in the country. Known as the home of hops and beer, the town is now trying to cope with a decline in its traditional industry. It recently launched a multi-million euro tourism project called Temple of Hops and Beer – but it is also slowly coming to terms with recent history that saw the town’s original German population replaced by Czechs in the aftermath of WWII.

Prima ballerina Daria Klimentová holds Prague celebration of 20 years on stage Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:07:23 +0100
The National Theatre in Prague is hosting a gala performance in honour of the world-renowned Czech ballet dancer Daria Klimentová, who is celebrating twenty years on stage. Born here in the Czech Republic, she has been a prima ballerina at the prestigious English National Ballet in London for the last thirteen years. On Wednesday night, the National Theatre will be the venue of her 1000th stage appearance. I spoke to the dancer just before her rehearsal for tonight’s event:

Situation in Iran among themes of 2010 One World festival Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:07:22 +0100
The 12th One World (Jeden Svět) festival of human rights documentaries gets underway in Prague on Wednesday evening. Over eight days it will screen 101 films from 30 states around the world, while around 100 directors and human rights advocates are expected to attend. Every year One World chooses particular issues to highlight; on the eve of the festival, its new director Hana Kulhánková told me about this year’s focus.

Minister of Human Rights slams public broadcaster for showing communist era news Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:07:21 +0100
Old TV news has been in the news recently here in the Czech Republic. Michael Kocáb, the human rights minister, has slammed the public broadcaster Czech TV for showing daily bulletins from the communist era. It is the same, he says, as if German TV showed Nazi-era news in the 1960s. Sarah Borufka reports.

US business grouping seeks to fight corruption by sponsoring new law on public tenders Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:07:20 +0100
The American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic has taken the highly unusual step of launching an initiative of its own to get a new law governing how massive public contracts are awarded backed by the government and passed by parliament. It says that corruption and the fixing of such tenders have got so bad that many foreign firms have given up on them altogether. We asked journalist and Amcham board member Erik Best what it is seeking to do.

News 3.9.2010 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:32:00 +0100
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Prague hosts machine translation marathon Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:38:52 +0100
Prague’s Charles University recently hosted an unusual marathon which tested the capacity of various machine translating systems. The annual event is part of the Euromatrix project, which aims to establish machine translation systems for all European languages. The participants had a week to translate some 12,000 sentences from various newspapers and news sites. In the coming weeks their output will be confronted with translations done by professional „human” translators. Ruth Fraňková spoke to Ondřej Bojar from the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, which is taking part in the Euromatrix project:

New Defence Ministry site provides information on Czech soldiers killed abroad during world wars Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:38:50 +0100
The fates of Czech soldiers who died abroad during the first and second world wars are being mapped in a newly created War Graves Record. The internet-based project documents more than 1,800 war graves around the world where Czech soldiers are buried, along with information about how and when they died.

Environment Ministry seeks to stem disappearance of farmland under new development Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:38:48 +0100
Agricultural land is fast disappearing under concrete in the Czech Republic and the pace is getting faster rather than slowing down. That is one of the main reasons why the Ministry of Environment is making a last minute bid to pass a new law that could put a brake on the process. Chris Johnstone reports.

Trade union leader ostracized for outrageous homophobic remarks Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:38:40 +0100
Transport and services union leader Jaromír Dušek has evoked outrage on the Czech political scene by launching a vicious and homophobic attack on the management of Czech Railways. In an interview for Saturday’s Lidové Noviny, Mr. Dušek said Czech Railways was run by a clique of incompetent gays who had links to homosexuals in the cabinet and the Office of the Government. The controversial trade union leader has now been barred from speaking for the umbrella trade unions organization and is likely to face charges of slander.

The legacy of communism and the need to reunite European history Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:09:32 +0100
Last month Prague hosted a major international conference on the crimes committed by the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe. Delegates from both sides of the former Iron Curtain discussed their research into atrocities that in many cases had been swept under the carpet for decades. To give a couple of examples: how many Europeans today remember that up to 130,000 people were executed in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia in the aftermath World War II, or that in Romania hundreds of opponents to the Stalinist regime were shot by the Securitate and buried in unmarked mass graves between 1948 and 1952? Raluca Grosescu from Romania’s Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes points out that her institute’s work has involved a great deal more than just sifting through archives:

News 3.8.2010 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:02:24 +0100
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Anna Kareninová – leading Czech literary and film translator Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:17:57 +0100
Anna Kareninová is a leading Czech literary translator and editor who also does the subtitles for a lot of the films that appear on the country’s cinema and TV screens. Many viewers would no doubt imagine that Anna Kareninová is a nom de plume, as it is the Czech version of Anna Karenina, the heroine of the Tolstoy novel of the same name. In fact, she told me at Prague’s Café Slavia, the name was assumed, not by her but by her father, after he fled from Russia in 1917.

Sports News 3.8.2010 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:43:17 +0100
In Sports News this Monday: the Czech Republic make very light work of Belgium to reach the last eight in tennis’s Davis Cup, not dropping a set on their way to victory in just six and a half hours; cross country skier Lukáš Bauer comes second in the 30 km pursuit in Finland’s Lahti; and Teplice and Sparta Prague are still neck-and-neck in the Czech soccer league after victories at the weekend.

Protektor wins Best Picture at Czech Lion Awards Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:16:50 +0100
While all eyes were on the awarding of the Oscars in Los Angeles on Sunday, the main event in cinema in the Czech Republic came a day earlier with the awarding of the Czech Lions. This year ten Czech films competed in 13 categories. The film Protektor by director Marek Najbrt dominated, winning six awards on the night, including Best Picture.

New party bets on popularity of charismatic leader Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:16:49 +0100
TOP 09 leader Karel Schwarzenberg and his team have just launched an unusual campaign aimed at getting young Czechs to vote. It revolves around the charismatic politician himself: voters can connect with him via online chats and even win the chance to spend an evening at the pub with Mr. Schwarzenberg. But what role does the leader’s popularity play in the overall success of this new party?

NGOs look to bring back spirit of activism on 100th Women’s Day Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:46:58 +0100
Monday is International Women’s Day, and in 2010 that means one hundred years since the holiday was introduced. The idea to highlight the struggle for women’s rights around the world picked up a different tone in communist countries like Czechoslovakia though, and was largely discarded after 1989. Now some NGOs in the Czech Republic want to use the 100th anniversary to reawaken the spirit of activism that Women’s Day originally stood for.

News 3.7.2010 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:16:42 +0100
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Attack of the 80s Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:01:00 +0100
Dear listeners, it’s always a pleasure to tell you about all of the interesting things that we experience and see in the Czech Republic. But this time I’m venting some expat anguish. There are things, you know, that we foreigners don’t like about the Czech Republic. There just aren’t many. This, however, is one of them, for me. To get the full impact, I’ll ask you to close your eyes… You’re in an old Prague café. Maybe one where Einstein lunched. It’s plush, definitely romantic. The coffee isn’t even bad in this place. All the senses are at peace, except for one.

Mailbox 3.7.2010 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:01:00 +0100
This week in Mailbox we read from your answers to our February listeners' quiz question and announce the name of this month's winner. Listeners quoted: Gerwyn Roberts, Mick Edwards, Jayanta Chakrabarty, Gordon Martindale, Zofia Szuberla, Colin Law, Charles Konecny, Hans Verner Lollike, Kristina Pletková.