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Women make up 44 percent of the country’s workforce but the vast majority still earn significantly less than men holding similar positions. Surveys indicate that the wage gap is seven thousand crowns a month on average in the private sector and five thousand in the public sphere. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is now striving to change that with a five year project that includes guidelines and benefits for employers as well as advice for women on how to address the issue at job interviews. I asked Veronika Šprincová of Forum 50 % how

The Czech head of state, foreign, and defense ministers fly out to Warsaw Friday for the start of the two-day NATO summit in Warsaw. The military alliance looks set to occupy an even bigger stage in the future following Brexit and is getting back to basics with European security now in the forefront of concerns.

The 51st edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is slowly drawing to a close, with the eight-day event due to climax with a glitzy awards ceremony on Saturday evening. What films are being tipped for the top prizes at the country’s biggest film event? And how has this year’s Karlovy Vary been in general? I put those questions to Ian Willoughby, who is at the festival in West Bohemia.

A Czech mining village divided over plans that could see it wiped off the map is the focus of Pustina, or Wasteland, a hugely ambitious HBO series that has just been previewed at the Karlovy Vary film festival. The eight-part drama evokes real locations in North Bohemia, such as the Jezeří Chateau surrounded by surface mines, and I asked Pustina co-producer Tomáš Hrubý (whose previous credits include Burning Bush) how closely it reflected actual communities threatened with extinction.

An epic series of paintings and what looks now like an epic battle about plans to take Alfons Mucha’s Slav Epic on an Asian tour. The latest turn is an appeal from a Czech cultural association for the paintings’ tour to be stopped in its tracks.

The Karlovy Vary film festival kicked off on Friday night with the much-anticipated world premiere of Anthropoid, a big-budget movie starring Hollywood actors that recreates the daring assassination of Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in 1942. The gala event was attended by the movie’s stars and its director Sean Ellis. Ian Willoughby sent this report from Karlovy Vary.

The changing of the guard has taken place at the Czech National Bank with a new incoming governor replacing the outgoing Miroslav Singer. And the new incumbent, Jiří Rusnok, is facing some interesting times with the expected exit from the bank’s low crown policy looming and the debate once again revived now about if and when the Czech Republic will sign up for the euro.

The 51st edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival gets underway in the West Bohemian spa town on Friday evening. As every year, the country’s biggest movie event promises Hollywood stars, several world premieres and a unique atmosphere generated by thousands of enthusiastic young film fans. Radio Prague’s Ian Willoughby is in Karlovy Vary and we asked him what is coming up tonight as well as throughout the festival:

Who better to ask for tips about this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival than its artistic director Karel Och? On the eve of the biggest movie event of the year in the Czech Republic, I caught up with its head of programming – and began by asking him if there were any particularly noteworthy special sections this year.

Almost a week since Great Britain took the momentous decision to leave the European Union the remaining 27 members – including the Czech Republic – have scrambled to look for positives and possible ways forward. The Czech prime minister has joined others in setting out some opening negotiating markers but is also under fire at home from those who want to widen the debate.