Czech news in brief for April 22: Wednesday's top afternoon headlines

Czech Radio trade unions have declared an open-ended strike alert this morning, followed a few hours later by unions of Czech Television. Employees of the two public broadcasters are protesting against the government's plans to cancel license fees and reduce their funding starting from this year, warning that this will lead to mass layoffs and undermine their ability to fulfill their public-service mission.

Meanwhile, hundreds of students gathered on Jan Palach Square around noon today to express their support for public media before marching towards the Ministry of Culture, responsible for a proposal to reduce funding for Czech TV and Radio. Young students in other Czech cities - including Brno and Olomouc - also took to the streets urging the government to keep their "hands off the media."

About 500 people had to be evacuated after the roof of a building caught fire on Rohanské nábřeží in Prague 8, the fire department announced on social media earlier this afternoon. The incident led emergency services to close all traffic on the embankment. The intervention was still ongoing at the time of writing, and no injury has so far been reported.

Tanzanian author of Yemeni origin and 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah will attend this year's Book World festival, taking place on May 14-17 at Prague's Exhibitions Grounds, organizers announced today. French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who was recently jailed in Algeria before being pardoned, will also be one of the key guests of the 2026 edition of Czechia's largest literary fair.

Two new cars were installed on the renovated tracks of the Petřín cable car, the Prague transport authority announced. Undeterred by low temperatures and a longer wait than promised, the event was attended by the chief-designer Anna Marešová, a few journalists and curious onlookers early on Wednesday morning. Test runs without passengers should take place until the end of June, and the Petřín funicular is expected to reopen to the public from September.