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Last week's visit to Prague by NATO Secretary General George Robertson brought both praise and criticism: praise for the bravery and professionalism of Czech soldiers serving in the Balkans; criticism for the slow pace of modernisation and plans to spend billions on up to three dozen new supersonic jet fighters, money which Lord Robertson said should not be spent to the detriment of the rest of the Czech armed forces. This week the Czech Army's Chief-of-Staff, General Jiri Sedivy, held a press conference at the Defence Ministry in Prague to answer

"A 1991 employment law bans discrimination on the basis of sex; however, in practice employers have remained free to consider sex, age, or even attractiveness when making hiring decisions." That statement refers to the Czech Republic and is taken from a report on human rights in the Czech Republic published by the US State Department earlier this week. reports.

For the second time in just over a month, the Constitutional Court has upheld objections to laws passed by the country's two main parties, the ruling Social Democrats and the opposition Civic Democrats. In both cases, the laws concerned constitutional amendments on the Czech election system and the way in which political parties are funded. It has been hailed as a defeat for the larger parties and a victory for President Vaclav Havel, who brought the matter to the Constitutional Court. has the details...

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The Cabinet approved a draft law on Monday which - if passed by parliament - would give homosexual partners the same legal rights as married couples, with the exception of raising children and sharing a common surname. But while Czech society is extremely tolerant - some might say apathetic - when it comes to sexual matters, two similar bills have already been defeated in parliament. They failed largely due to efforts by the right-of-centre Christian Democrats - the country's only religious political party - who bitterly oppose legalisation of same-sex marriage on moral grounds. But as discovered when she spoke to sex therapist Petr Weiss, it's probably only a matter of time before the law is passed.

A seminar was held on Monday night entitled "The Future of Public Broadcasting" - a particularly sensitive issue here in the Czech Republic, following the huge crisis surrounding the country's public TV network Czech Television. The appointment in December of Jiri Hodac as the General Director of Czech TV led to strikes, marathon debates in parliament and the country's biggest street demonstrations since the 1989 overthrow of Communism. Mr Hodac and his appointees are now gone, but the debate over the role of public broadcasting continues. Speaking at Monday's seminar were Ivo Mathe, Czech Television's first post-Communist Director General, and Einar Forde, the Director of Norwegian Public Television and Radio. spoke to Ivo Mathe about the past and future of public broadcasting in his country...

Hundreds of mostly young people interested in studying abroad descended on Prague's Narodni dùm at the weekend, to visit Expolingua 2001, an international fair of languages, culture and education. was there and brings back this report:

Reports appeared in the press this weekend that the European Union was planning to draw up a list of BSE-risk in all non-EU member countries, divided into four categories. The Czech Republic has recorded no cases of mad cow disease, and is taking measures to stop the disease entering the country. Nevertheless, it could find itself in Category Three: a country where there have been no recorded cases, but where BSE is still probable. This has not gone down too well with the Czech Ministry of Agriculture, as discovered when she talked to spokesman

A new Czech film set to be released this Thursday documents the rock group The Plastic People of the Universe and hopes to re-familiarise Czech society, and especially contemporary youth, with attempts at free speech under the Communist regime. The band which was formed in the same year as the 1968 Soviet-led invasion, has come to represent the values that led up to the 1989 Velvet Revolution. The film documents the history of this unique band, while presenting a picture of the absurdity of living under a totalitarian regime. spoke to the film's director, Jana Chytilova:

The issue of race relations and attacks on the Roma minority by Neo Nazi skinheads is a tense and emotional one in the Czech Republic. The decision by a court in Eastern Moravia on Thursday to dismiss a case against three youths charged with an arson attack on a Roma household, could further weaken faith in the ability of the Czech authorities to crack down on racially motivated crime. has this report.