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North Korea has continued to make headlines with yet another missile test over Japan - its second in three weeks, as well as news that its recent nuclear test may have been even stronger than initially thought. Amidst growing tensions as well as stricter sanctions, there are still many who are convinced that North Korea’s actions are rational – as opposed to suicidal - as a means of preventing regime change (see Fareed Zakaria’s opinion piece from September 15 in the Washington Post).

Eighty years ago this week, Czechoslovakia’s first president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk died at the age of eighty-seven. He had led the country from its independence in 1918 for the next seventeen years, enjoying immense popularity throughout that time. Masaryk was known widely as the “President Liberator” and “Father of the Nation”, but although this popularity often slipped into hero-worship, he remained a lifelong democrat and humanist, in stark contrast with many of the world leaders emerging in the 1920s and 1930s. His values are reflected in several

The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan is home to some 80,000 refugees. Even with international aid pouring in, living conditions in the camp are extremely harsh. Last year the Czech government sent 40 million crowns to Jordan to finance housing units for some 2,000 refugees. Aid money earmarked this year is being used for the camps electrification. And Jordan is one of the countries targeted by the Czech government’s humanitarian medical aid program MEDEVAC, thanks to which around a thousand patients will be operated on this year. I spoke to Jordanian

Czech ambassadors from around the world congregated in Prague this week for their annual round of consultations. Among the foreign policy issues on their agenda were security, economic diplomacy, EU-related matters and regional cooperation. During a small break in their busy agenda, I met with the Czech Ambassador to France Petr Drulák to talk about Franco-Czech relations, the country’s position in the EU and the role of the Visegrad alliance. I began by asking for his take on Prime Minister Sobotka’s recent proposal that the Czech Republic should

Libor Sečka is a seasoned Czech diplomat who has served as ambassador in countries such as Italy, Spain, Malta and China. At the start of 2016 he took office as Czech ambassador to the UK. On a brief visit to Prague, I spoke to him about his current mission, the life of a diplomat and how he won a bottle of wine in an ambassadorial bet on the outcome of the Brexit referendum.

Under Communism, being gay or lesbian was essentially taboo and many still preferred to live with the secret rather than come out. In this second part of a story begun on August 17, Jana Kociánová describes how her secret was eventually uncovered. How, an artistic environment in Prague allowed some room to be who she really was and how that forced her to be open about her sexuality although the era of so-called ‘normalisation’ was did not encourage those who stepped out of line.

Under Communism, being gay or lesbian was essentially taboo. Homosexuality was de-criminalized in the former Czechoslovakia from 1962, a lot earlier than in many west European countries, but attitudes did not change as a result.

Barrel organ players from around Europe descended on Prague this week for their annual gathering in celebration of the historical instrument and street music. The event called “The Barrel Organ Lives!” brought a unique atmosphere to Prague’s Lesser Town which provided a perfect backdrop for the open-air public concerts that took place here.

The seventh annual Prague Pride Festival of LGBT culture has not only attracted members of the LGBT community from around the world but highlighted the conditions in which they live in different countries. Boris Dittrich is Advocacy Director of the LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. This week he came to Radio Prague’s studio to talk about the roots of homophobia, the problems the LGBT community faces in different countries and what can be done to improve their lives. I began by asking him where LGBT communities face the biggest

The city of Brno is one of a number of venues where summer schools of Czech take place every year and bring together students from across the world. Now in its fiftieth year, the Masaryk University Summer School of Slavonic Studies offers its students much more than just language lessons.