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Since 1997, the Czech Foreign Ministry has been honouring those who promote the good name of the Czech Republic abroad with the annual Gratias Agit awards. Last Friday, October 14, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg handed out the awards to thirteen personalities from around the globe to thank them for their outstanding work.

Controversial activist Ladislav Bátora has announced he is leaving his post at the Education Ministry. Earlier this year, his stint at the ministry became a source of upheaval on the Czech political scene but Mr Bátora was allowed to remain at the ministry in return for a promise he would stay away from politics. But on Friday, Ladislav Bátora said he was no longer willing to keep that promise and wanted to be actively engaged in public life. Commentator Jiří Pehe thinks he is leaving after his goal – getting public attention – was fulfilled.

As of this week, the Czech capital Prague has a brand new attraction for visitors and its citizens alike. A new museum just a stone’s throw from Prague Castle looks back at an era when outstanding scientists and alchemists, brought to Prague from across Europe by the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II., carried out their experiments in laboratories around the city.

In the past two decades of their existence, Czech tabloids have become increasingly aggressive, stopping at nothing in their quest to get an edge over the competition. Reports from the show-biz world and gossip about well-known personalities, which marked the birth of a tabloid press after the fall of communism, soon gave way to intrusive pictures of celebrities on their death-bed, politicians caught in the nude and reports about spontaneous abortions and fatal diagnoses. A proposed amendment to the law aims to curb these excesses and make the tabloid

The Czech national football squad secured an impressive 4:1 win over Lithuania on Tuesday, keeping alive the team’s chances of reaching the European Championship next year in Poland and Ukraine. Despite receiving bad news shortly before the match that midfielder Tomáš Rosický would not be able to play, the team displayed plenty of verve throughout the game and jumped to an early lead.

Central European politicking took centre stage in EU news on Tuesday, as the Slovak Parliament voted against expanding the EU bailout fund and took their government down with it. Meanwhile, the EU approved the ratification of the Czech opt-out to its Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was demanded by President Václav Klaus in 2009 as he steadfastly postponed his signing of the Lisbon Treaty. To many of Wednesday’s political pundits it seems the Czechs and Slovaks are making an art out of hijacking major EU votes to drive through their domestic

Czech born Magnum photographer Josef Koudelka’s unique collection of photographs documenting the 1968 Russian-led invasion of Czechoslovakia opened at the Lumiere Brothers Gallery in Moscow on Friday. At the exhibition’s opening the photographer said he hoped the unique testimony would help dispel the myth that the invasion of Czechoslovakia was an act of solidarity with its people.

At one time Jiří Paroubek was one of the most influential politicians in the country, both as prime minister and as leader of the Social Democratic Party: but a poorer result than expected in the 2010 national election spelt his end in the party’s top leadership. Now, the former Social Democrat is moving to found a new party on the political Left, which could provide voters with a new alternative. Earlier I discussed the project with political analyst Vladimíra Dvořáková, who talked about the former party leader’s possible motivation – as well as

The 15th annual Forum 2000 Conference which brings together world thinkers, former and acting politicians and other public figures was officially launched in Prague on Sunday by its founder, former Czech president Václav Havel. In their discussions, over a hundred and twenty delegates, including Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga and US economist Joseph Stiglitz will focus primarily on this year’s main theme which is “democracy and the rule of law”.

The government’s offer of state bonds, enabling citizens to invest in the national debt, has proved hugely successful. After registering orders for more than 16.5 billion crowns, way over the set 10 billion crown target, the Finance Ministry terminated all registrations on Friday, three weeks ahead of the scheduled date. Although public interest surpassed all expectations, critics say it was a costly and unnecessary transaction.