Martin Panek

Murder is reprehensible and wrong. So is the whitewashing of extremists. Charlie Kirk was murdered this week in Utah during a public event. The video footage of the act is gruesome, and we rightly recoil when we watch it. We should nonetheless demand that journalists and public servants react with cooler heads and do not whitewash the victim’s life.

Argentinian President Javier Milei filed lawsuits this month for defamation against three journalists, reports the Buenos Aires Herald. \"The journalists targeted are columnists Ari Lijalad and Carlos Pagni, as well as TV host Viviana Canosa. Canosa was a staunch Milei supporter until two years ago,\" says the newspaper reports.

Donald Trump, the illegitimate President of the United States of America, declared that all imports from Canada, Mexico, and China will be subject to a 25% tariff, from February 4, 2025, onwards. There is no plausible reading of the trade among Mexico, the United States, and Canada that would even begin to justify these measures. Indeed, Trump’s previous administration renegotiated the free trade agreement among these countries.

The Israeli-Palestinian war has stirred emotions well beyond the Levant. However, we should approach the censorship of public speech with a cooler head. The British Home Secretary has warned that waving the Palestinian flag might be deemed a criminal act. France has banned pro-Palestinian protests, and so has Germany. The Chief Minister of an Indian state directed the police to address pro-Palestinian statements on social media.

The US Federal Reserve System (Fed) has announced that it will raise interest rates. They have been at zero since the start of the pandemic and since the last recession in 2009, they hit their highest level in 2019. But even in 2019, they were very low, with an effective rate of about 2.5%.

On January 20, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic approved an amendment to the Food Act proposed by the SPD, which implements an unprecedented anti-market measure in the form of food sales quotas into Czech legislation.

It is not very often that the Liberální Institut can praise a politician for something. The happier I am that I can do so today, because an entourage of Czech senators - headed by the President of the Senate, Miloš Vystrči, - went in their official capacity to the Republic of China – the country generally known as Taiwan.

In the year of the COVID-19 crisis, Czechs must endure one more month of work for the state. After June 24, 2020, they will start earning money for themselves. Until then, for 175 days, they only work for the state. This is the least free year since 2000.

This year, Prague will be celebrating the 30th spring since the fall of communism. It will also welcome a number of well-known friends of liberty as guests of Liberal Institute and Czech Students for Liberty.

Hearings, even outside the grilling season, are done in a similar fashion. When a committee invites a guest for an “exchange of views”, the way it is handled in the committee is by and large the same. MEPs are lectured by the Committee Chair how to use their five-minute slot and how to ask a question.