Radio Prague International - latest articles

One of the largest nuclear accidents in history – the Chernobyl disaster, took place on April 26, 1986. While in the West, countries were quite swift to react to the dangers of radiation, Czechoslovak authorities decided to downplay the incident, withholding information which resulted in people going out into the streets oblivious to the danger.

The annual Anifilm festival of animated films kicked off in the north Bohemian town of Liberec on Tuesday. Over the next six days, dozens of films, as well as music videos and computer games, will be screened in numerous venues all over the town. I discussed the event with programme coordinator Radek Hosenseidl and I started by asking him why they decided to focus on Japan this year:

Russia’s war against Ukraine has had widespread negative impacts outside the country’s borders. Among them is a drop in interest in Russian studies at Czech universities and a gradual loss of academic contacts.

Mrs Palermo’s Cottage is a novel by AR Parker, inspired by the Czech borderlands. Vit Pohanka spoke to the author about what brought him to Czechia and what led him to set his latest novel in the town where he bought a house and settled.

Last year, the non-profit Centre for Civil Liberties was one of three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize - the first time ever that a Nobel Prize has been awarded to a Ukrainian citizen or organisation. Ukrainian human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk started working for the organisation, which she now heads, in 2007. She has been involved in a number of activities relating to the protection of human rights, including the collecting of evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, so when Czech Radio's Jan Bumba interviewed her recently, he started by asking her what specifically she is focusing on right now.

Czech President Petr Pavel arrived in Ukraine early on Friday morning, shortly after Kyiv and other cities were hit by Russian missiles. Accompanied by his Slovak counterpart, Zuzana Čaputová, Mr. Pavel visited the sites of atrocities and criticised Moscow’s attacks on civilian targets.

A new iRozhlas.cz report has found a sharp rise in the number of single-occupant homes in Czechia, from 32 percent in 2011 to 39 percent a decade later. The jump is attributed to an increase in single people in major cities and more seniors, often widows, living by themselves. I discussed the findings with the report’s author, Jan Boček of Czech Radio’s data journalism team.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for ways by which its future spaceships and probes could use nuclear-powered engines in order to travel across the extreme distances of outer space. Scientists at the Czech Technical University in Prague are among the many institutions involved in the effort, specifically a project called “RocketRoll”. I spoke to Jan Frýbort from the university’s Department of Nuclear Reactors to find out more.

President Petr Pavel has repeatedly said this week that Petr Fiala’s coalition government is poor in communication with the public, echoing a commonly heard assertion. But is the head of state correct on this point? I spoke to political scientist Jiří Pehe.

Women’s basketball was significantly popular in the 1990’s and early 2000’s in Czechia, but a slight dip in popularity made the sport take a hit. The USK Praha team and their head coach Natália Hejková are changing the face of the sport as we know it here in Prague.