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The Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellowship was founded in 2011 by the Czech Foreign Ministry, Radio Free Europe and Vize 97 -the Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation, with the aim of advancing and promoting media freedom in the post-communist world. Fellows are selected from the RFE’s broadcast region where media freedom is stifled and independent journalists often work at risk. The selected journalists spend several months at RFE where they receive on-the-job training from seasoned professionals.

A charity concert in honour of Czechoslovakia’s first post-communist president, Václav Havel, is being held on Monday night at Prague’s Lucerna Palace. The former dissident and playwright, who died in 2011, was elected president for the first time on this day 25 years ago. Bands performing on Monday include Cuban punk anti-communists Porno para Ricardo, whose frontman was repeatedly jailed by the Castro regime. Russian folk band Arkadiy Kots, supporters of Pussy Riot when its members were jailed, will also take to the stage as well as the Plastic People of the Universe and others.

25 years ago today, the dissident playwright Václav Havel became the first non-communist president of Czechoslovakia since 1948. Back then, Edvard Beneš had resigned from office in the midst of a communist putsch led by Klement Gottwald. 41 years later, the communists would vote to destroy their own monopoly on power.

The name Jolyon Naegele is familiar to many who lived through the final years of communism in Czechoslovakia and other countries in the then Soviet Bloc. At that time Naegele was a roving Eastern European correspondent for the U.S. radio station Voice of America. In a special interview, he discusses his first impressions of Czechoslovakia in 1978, his experiences with the StB, meeting Václav Havel, the Velvet Revolution, and developments since then.

On Thursday, December 18th, Czechs are marking the third anniversary of the death of Vaclav Havel, the legend of the Velvet Revolution and the country’s first post-communist president. Commemorative events are taking place in different parts of the country, but some critics point out that three years after his departure, the Czech Republic has strayed far from Vaclav Havel’s philosophy and ideals.

A specially-commissioned bust of the late Czech president Václav Havel is set to be unveiled at Ireland’s parliament, the Dáil, in March next year. The man behind the idea is Bill Shipsey, founder of Art for Amnesty and also one of the initiators of the international Havel’s Place series of memorial spots. On the line to Dublin, I asked Mr. Shipsey where the idea for the bust had come from.

Czechs are marking the third anniversary of the death of Václav Havel, the country’s first post-communist president. Cardinal Dominik Duka will celebrate a mass in his memory at Prague Crossroads centre on Thursday afternoon and the Václav Havel library will be hosting a staging of Havel’s play Protest. People around the country are also joining the “short trousers for Václav Havel” initiative, rolling their pants up to remember Václav Havel’s first inauguration to the presidency, when he wore visibly short trousers.

The authorities in Plzeň are considering moving a monument to the late Czech president Vaclav Havel that has been repeatedly damaged. The West Bohemian city joined a number of others in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in getting a Havel’s Place memorial spot at the end of October. However, a glass love heart, referencing the symbol the writer commonly attached to his signature, was removed from it soon afterwards. A replacement was also taken. Plzeň City Hall will consider a safer spot for the monument in spring, Mayor Martin Zrzavecký said.

The late Czech president, dissident and playwright Václav Havel was honoured by members of the US Congress on Wednesday. A bust of Mr Havel was unveiled at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol in the presence of Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Havel’s widow, Dagmar. The ceremony concluded a series of events marking the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, which toppled the Communist regime.

The Czech prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, has told a deputy foreign minister, Petr Drulák, to respect the country’s foreign policy in the field of human rights. Mr. Drulák has described the policies advocated by Václav Havel, which put a relatively strong emphasis on human rights, as mistaken and harmful to Czech interests. Mr. Sobotka has endorsed Mr. Havel’s views on a four-day trip to the United States linked to events celebrating the late president’s legacy. In recent times the Czech Republic has made marked efforts to improve relations with China, which has been criticised for its human rights record.