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The head of the Czech-Moravian Football Association has said he is considering a new idea to help combat corruption and injustice in Czech football - the office of a new football ombudsman. The FA head, who was elected in the summer with a strong mandate to “clean up” the sport, has received a slew of complaints on his desk, addressing a number of issues including charges of allegedly corrupt refereeing, questions which a football ombudsman might be better suited to address.

European and Czech competition watchdogs have carried out raids on Czech energy companies. The unprecedented action has been sparked by suspicions that local electricity giant ČEZ has been using sharp practices to corner the local market and increase prices.

Human rights campaigners won an important moral victory on Monday when the government of Jan Fischer expressed regret over the forced sterilization of women, almost all of them members of the country’s Roma minority. No reliable figures exist for the numbers of women sterilized, but what’s alarming is that according to human rights groups, the practice continues in isolated cases to this day.

The new Czech film Protektor has begun delivering on high expectations with a win at the Starz International Film Festival in Denver, Colorado. The Krzysztof Kieślowski Award for Best Feature Film was a promising start for the WWII film that the Czech Republic has already pinned its Oscar hopes on.

After the Czech Senate banned a planned appearance on its premises by the controversial far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders last week, the Czech Muslim organization Libertas Independent Agency on Monday surprised many by extending an invitation to him. The organization is offering to host a screening of Mr. Wilders anti-Islamic film Fitna and organize a debate on the subject.

Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek scored a half victory at the 20th Civic Democrat Party congress that took place in Prague over the weekend. The former prime minister successfully fought off plans to have him ousted as party leader. But the price he paid might prove too high in the run-up for next year’s general elections.

The Ministry of Environment is launching a unique landscape atlas of the Czech Republic. The result of six years work, it contains more than 1200 maps produced by over 300 specialists in 100 institutions. I spoke to the man who initiated the project, Environment Minister Ladislav Miko, and first asked him what purpose such an extensive atlas would serve.

New results in a Czech sociological study (part of a larger long-term European project measuring values across European countries) have suggested that an overwhelming number of Czechs – 86 percent - are happy with their lives. The study covered aspects contributing to perceived wellbeing, and looked into how values in the country had shifted over the years. For example, back in 1991, 61 percent of Czechs were concerned with individual freedom, whereas in 2008, that number dropped to just 46 percent. Over the same period, Czechs also shifted from

The Czech Senate on Thursday banned an appearance by the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders on its premises. Mr Wilders was going to screen his anti-Islamic film, Fitna, and address a conference held by Czech anti-Islamists and Euro-sceptics.

The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes is under pressure this week after a petition was circulated calling for the dismissal of the Institute’s director, Pavel Žáček. Such petitions are not uncommon in the Czech Republic and this one – circulated by former dissident Stanislav Penc – might have gone more or less unnoticed had it not been signed by ex-president Václav Havel.