Stripping down trams: Prague bans erotica, booze, and religious ads

City officials say that "maintaining a comfortable environment" for passengers is crucial; the capital has recently been trying to remove visual smog.

Thomas Smith

Written by Thomas Smith Published on 04.02.2025 12:51:00 (updated on 04.02.2025) Reading time: 2 minutes

The City of Prague has approved a new set of advertising restrictions for public transportation, banning advertisements promoting addictive substances, erotic services (like strip clubs), religious themes, violence, or vulgar content on trams and buses.

The decision, part of the Prague Integrated Transport (PID) quality standards, aims to enhance the quality and attractiveness of the city’s public transport system.

The city’s Deputy Mayor for Transport Zdeněk Hřib emphasized the importance of maintaining a neutral and comfortable environment for passengers. “Such advertising simply does not belong on public transport vehicles,” he commented.

Under the updated PID rules, offensive advertisements using text, symbols, images, or links to websites are all newly prohibited, effective immediately.

The freshly approved restrictions build upon existing advertising guidelines that already banned advertisements promoting individual automobile transport or content deemed harmful to public transport services.

The first PID quality standards for buses were introduced in 2018 and took effect in 2020. Similar standards for trams were approved in 2022. City representatives have confirmed that equivalent regulations for the metro are expected to be introduced soon, with standards for trolleybuses also in development and ready in a matter of months.

The topic made the news in late 2023 when trams endorsing Christianity—depicting a picture of Jesus—appeared in the capital. The Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) had then defended itself, explaining it did not control advertising directly but rather leased out the advertising spaces to companies, who then rented spaces to clients.

The City of Prague has made efforts to clear “advertising smog” by removing some billboard adverts in the center of the capital. One case in point is the reopened Jiřího z Poděbrad station, which remains without advertising.

Residents can submit complaints about potential advertising violations via a form on the National Advertising Council (RPR) website. They must also state which exact provisions of the country’s advertising code the commercial in question breaks—such as being offensive to religions, nationalities, cultures, or just generally distasteful. If the RPR finds an advert objectionable, it will remove it.

Do you support the ban?

Yes 79 %
No 11 %
Only for specific parts 10 %
130 readers voted on this poll. Voting is open

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