2013-09-27T15:32:06+02:00 Radio Prague http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/shortage-of-child-psychiatrists-becoming-serious-problem urn:uuid:8a7b34a4-6aa2-5c64-9c3f-d8e0f48f5f03 2013-09-27T15:32:06+02:00

The Czech Republic is facing what doctors describe as a critical shortage of child psychiatrists. Although the government is taking steps to address the problem, children in need of care now spend months waiting for an appointment.

urn:uuid:f479f9d9-b545-513a-9859-c7a5e5915a5d 2013-09-26T15:21:56+02:00

For the first time Prague has just played host to the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS), a prestigious science fair and competition that takes place each year. The Czech capital brought together some of the brightest young minds in science and technology, at a time of growing concern at the numbers of young Czechs deserting scientific subjects for the humanities. Radio Prague spoke to Martin Samek from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

urn:uuid:de1a928a-ad3f-508f-94ca-552a39b5d06c 2013-09-26T15:21:56+02:00

The Next Wave festival of independent theater and art is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Starting on Thursday, new and established performance groups and independent artists will show their works in Prague, Brno and Pardubice during the 12-day festival. The festival’s director, Jakub Matějka, spoke about some of the highlights for this year.

urn:uuid:ab34b9c4-fb79-556f-aac2-395f44f85d94 2013-09-25T15:58:15+02:00

The Czech Republic now has a telephone hotline for families of missing children, with a Europe-wide phone number, in partnership with a European network working to help find missing or runaway children and support their families. This week, the non-profit organization Lost Child (Ztracené dítě) received certification to use the 116 000 hotline, which already exists in 22 other European countries.

urn:uuid:e83705e4-e94a-5932-abb7-3a9fc2f553ca 2013-09-25T15:58:15+02:00

The legendary footballer Josef “Pepi” Bican, was inducted in the Czech Football Association’s Hall of Fame on Wednesday, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Officially recognized as the most prolific scorer in the history of the game, Pepi Bican is said to have scored an incredible 4,500 goals in his career.

urn:uuid:84c4e867-d445-5fbe-b945-b8967f06f33b 2013-09-24T15:48:32+02:00

City councillors in Prague have taken a significant step to try and curb disorderly conduct in the capital, passing an ordinance doubling the number of public areas where the consumption of alcohol will be banned. As of October 3, almost 860 spots in the capital will be off-limits for alcohol, including parks, areas near schools, and city squares.

urn:uuid:308c8a5a-eade-51fa-b9fa-59ade43c5173 2013-09-24T15:48:32+02:00

When one half of the Čapek brothers villa was put up for sale by the relatives of Karel Čapek’s wife on May, some were worried that the famous writer’s residence, where many important works were written, would be sold to a private owner and closed off to the public for good. The Prague 10 district council put the concerns to rest on Monday when it voted to purchase the villa for 44 million crowns. The owner, Karel Scheinpflug, was willing to lower the original asking price of 55 million, in order to make the residence a public space. Radio Prague spoke earlier to Jan Charvát from the Prague 10 town hall and asked about the plans for the villa.

urn:uuid:4a6961d2-d610-5806-9c5c-fb35de0db11b 2013-09-23T15:59:24+02:00

Czech Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok on Monday joined European and world leaders in congratulating German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her party’s third successive election victory. The election result spells continuity both for Germany and the EU, and commentators in the Czech Republic see it as a highly positive development. Jakub Janda, deputy director of the European Values think tank, gave Radio Prague his take on CDU’s election victory.

urn:uuid:2b95a1ad-aa3f-5ad2-9007-3cd1aa23d031 2013-09-20T13:39:28+02:00

Switch on your TV here in the Czech Republic and you’ll see numerous familiar shows – Dr House, Bones, Downton Abbey – but they’re invariably dubbed into Czech; rarely are they shown in the original with subtitles. A group of secondary school students wants to change that, and have launched a new campaign to petition public and private broadcasters to stop dubbing their output.

urn:uuid:e882cf55-231c-5447-9020-139673bf01c9 2013-09-19T15:40:28+02:00

President Miloš Zeman says the European Union will put pressure on Canada to lift visas for Czech citizens, reintroduced in 2009 following a rise in the number of Roma people seeking asylum. Mr Zeman made the comments in a speech to members of the Czech Republic’s permanent representation to the European Union, after meeting European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

urn:uuid:54575540-caf9-5f2d-9d5f-faaef638a1f1 2013-09-19T15:40:28+02:00

Czech members of the European Parliament have a below par performance overall, according to a new study released on Thursday by the Prague-based think-tank European Values. On average, Czech MEPs seem to attend fewer meetings and participate less actively than their colleagues.

urn:uuid:4cfeab8f-beb0-5feb-be3c-a42d0cc12f82 2013-09-18T16:10:33+02:00

Tuesday was the cut-off line for registering in October’s general elections. Twenty-four parties and groupings have applied for registration, 17 of them fielding candidates in all 14 regions. Apart from the established parties voters will be able to choose from a vast number of small parties and groupings, who are hoping to ride on the wave of public discontent.

urn:uuid:323c49bf-4c69-598e-b7b0-ed6dc9da0770 2013-09-18T16:10:33+02:00

Viktoria Plzeň welcomed a star-studded Manchester City team on Tuesday for their first group game in this season’s Champions League. But while a spirited performance saw the West Bohemian club keep City at bay for the first half, the gulf in class told in the second and the visitors ultimately ran out comfortable 3:0 winners.

urn:uuid:1f5251df-8dbd-5005-904c-a033a4020cff 2013-09-17T16:11:25+02:00

Hundreds of angry miners took to the streets of Ostrava on Tuesday to protest against planned wage cuts and growing job insecurity in the region. After a year of negotiations employers and trade union representatives are nowhere near reaching a deal on the 2014 to 2018 collective agreement, and there is a growing fear of layoffs in a region that already has over 100,000 unemployed.

urn:uuid:ed13dc01-81d2-5229-b7b1-dc13953c067f 2013-09-17T16:11:25+02:00

The Forum 2000 conference concludes in Prague on Tuesday evening. Over the past three days, over 140 distinguished speakers from around world discussed a wide range of issues related to the event’s central theme this year: societies in transition. The closing panel featured the Dalai Lama and focused on, among other subjects, the experience of former Soviet bloc countries and the legacy of the late Václav Havel.

urn:uuid:fa1f6ea5-11d6-5061-9f18-ee809cb1ea5f 2013-09-16T13:29:32+02:00

The 17th Forum 2000 conference is underway in Prague, bringing together over a hundred intellectuals, former and current politicians and other distinguished figures from around the world. This year’s Forum is focused on two subjects: the legacy of its founder, the late Václav Havel, and how countries can make the transition to democracy. Among the speakers are the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama, the Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, and Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

urn:uuid:a3c34b72-79d0-529f-a39a-4f29b6b584eb 2013-09-13T15:45:08+02:00

Campaigning in October’s general elections got off the ground this week with a number of new and established parties presenting their election programmes. In addition to the usual election rivalry between established parties and promises of change from newcomers, an unexpected player has entered the fray: President Milos Zeman is campaigning hard for his own party, regardless of criticism from all sides. I spoke to political analyst Jiří Pehe about the character of this election campaign and the president’s role in it.

urn:uuid:733c7edc-2fd3-548e-a532-e4b4fd596018 2013-09-12T15:44:15+02:00

Czech football has been engulfed in a fresh scandal following the charging of a dozen current and former players with match-fixing. Police say the bribery occurred at various levels of the game, though most of the matches under investigation were in the second division and at junior level.

urn:uuid:276e68a5-2f91-5be2-86d9-3f24c45273a9 2013-09-12T15:44:15+02:00

When Miloš Zeman was chosen as the Czech Republic’s first directly elected president earlier this year, much of the credit for his victory went to Miroslav Šlouf, his long-time, somewhat shadowy ‘adviser’ who masterminded his successful election campaign. So many are still struggling to comprehend the bizarre series of events of the past 24 hours. First it was announced he’d been nominated to lead Mr Zeman’s Citizens’ Rights Party (SPOZ) in Prague in next month’s elections; within hours it was announced he would not be standing. So what’s going on?

urn:uuid:fc8b9164-6c4d-5c9e-8c4a-603cd8db6c84 2013-09-11T15:48:39+02:00

Czech Labour and Social Affairs minister Frantisek Koníček on Tuesday unveiled the mainstays of a national strategy for preventing and tackling homelessness in the Czech Republic. The plan involves both effective prevention and assistance such as social housing, better access to medical care and improved social services.