Did Czech Health Minister Vlastimil Válek say the planned production of penicillin in the Czech Republic could inadvertently lead to the production of pervitin, a Czech name for methamphetamine? No, that's not true: Valek never mentioned pervitin during a discussion about the need to increase local production of penicillin. The claim was fabricated in a post designed to appear as…

Did Czech President Petr Pavel say that Russia will win the war in Ukraine? No, that's not true: An interview with the president by Czech public radio was edited so that the president's statement was taken out of context. Pavel did say the words in the interview, but not in that order or context. The claim appeared in a video…

Was former Czech ice hockey goalkeeper Dominik Hasek an informant of the Communist-era Czechoslovak secret police? No, that's not true: An online search of publicly available archival records shows that Hasek did not collaborate with the StB, as the Communist-era secret police in Czechoslovakia was known. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on TikTok on December 22, 2023.…

Was the bird flu outbreak at a Czech poultry farm in January 2024, resulting in the culling of 73,000 chickens, actually a deliberate scheme to introduce U.S. poultry into the Czech market? No, that's not true: Authorities confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza at a poultry farm near Chocen, located two hours east of Prague. The claim…

Did Czechoslovakia continue to exist, which means the Czech Republic and Slovakia cannot be part of NATO? No, that's not true: Czechoslovakia officially ceased to exist on January 1, 1993, when it divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic has been a NATO member since 1999, Slovakia since 2004. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Did six vehicles filled with riot police monitor the Czech interior minister's town hall meeting with dissenters in the northeastern Czech city of Karvina on January 22, 2024? No, that's not true: Both a police spokesperson and the woman who took the photograph of a policeman in tactical gear that was included in the video confirmed to Lead Stories that…

Did Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala say he was glad that the media "almost ignored" his omission of a $1 million investment in his asset declaration and claim to have concealed all his funds in a location beyond the reach of even top investigative journalists? No, that's not true: Fiala did not make that statement, and the audio in the…

Is Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala being ignored by foreign delegations compared to his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico? No, that's not true: Government press releases and official posts on social media show that both heads of government have received foreign representatives in the capitals of their countries. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on TikTok on January 21,…

Did Russia kill several French "officers" or "mercenaries" during an attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, in January 2024? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support the Russian claim, and French officials dismissed it as part of a Russian disinformation campaign, saying the names of the alleged French victims circulating on Russian Telegram channels had been previously reported in…

Was American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin killed in Kyiv during a Russian missile attack on January 3, 2024? No, that's not true: Lloyd Austin was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC between January 1 and January 15, 2024, for treatment of an infection related to a prostate cancer operation. The claim appeared in a video (archived…

Did the Czech Republic not participate in a December 2023 meeting of the United Nations Security Council called by Russia because its ambassador was in Prague? No, that's not true: Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky decided the Czech Republic would not take part in the UN meeting because he considered it part of Russian propaganda efforts aimed at spreading lies.…

Does a letter by the Prague university gunman in which he confessed to an earlier double murder, found in his booby-trapped house, prove that the police framed him for that crime? No, that's not true: The police confirmed to Lead Stories that the gunman had confessed to killing an infant and her father days before the mass shooting at Charles…

Does the Czech government want to give citizenship to foreigners to sway the vote in its favor? No, that's not true: The Czech government has approved a proposal by lawmakers that would allow descendants of emigrants from Czechoslovakia who were illegally stripped of their citizenship by the communist regime to become citizens of their ancestral country. Some opposition politicians, promoting…

Do iPhones secretly use infrared flashes to take and store pictures of your face? No, that's not true: On models that support it, iPhones have an Attention Aware feature, which checks if you're looking at the device to prevent it from locking or dimming the screen, and a Face ID feature, to provide authentication through facial recognition. Both features don't…

Is postal voting a scam that the Czech government wants to exploit and change the election law before the next parliamentary elections in 2025? No, that's not true: It is a legitimate way of voting that is used in many countries, and the Czech government wants to introduce it only to simplify the procedure for Czechs living abroad who may…

Did Bill Gates discuss the consumption of bugs, the potential threat of killer robots or concerns about COVID-19 and the vaccine not being sufficiently lethal in a video shared from COP28? No, that's not true: The original video Gates shared on his social media was altered; the edited version conveyed a message entirely different from his original statement. The claim…

Is residence abroad a reason why some Czechs are excluded from voting in national elections? No, that's not true: According to Czech law, 18 years of age and Czech citizenship are decisive for the right to vote. The country where people live is not the deciding factor. It would be illegal to exclude from voting people who live abroad. The…

Was the video capturing the evacuation of people from Prague University's Faculty of Arts building during the mass shooting on December 21, 2023, staged? No, that's not true: The video was recorded by a bystander and subsequently shared on social media. The footage aligns with other recordings from different witnesses, showing law enforcement facilitating the evacuation from the building where…

Has the European Union's policy of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, the Green Deal, caused the energy crisis that has led to a rise in prices in the European Union in recent years? No, that's not true: The European Union is facing an energy crisis because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Did an international outcry occur from foreign media questioning a Ukrainian flag at Prague's Faculty of Arts, as seen in images of the mass shooter who killed 14 and injured 25 in December 2023? No, that's not true: Major foreign media reports on the incident do not acknowledge the presence of a Ukrainian flag alongside the Czech flag. The claim…