Shops and restaurants will be able to advertise solely in a foreign language

Shops and restaurants will not be banned from advertising their goods and services solely in a foreign language, the ctk news agency reported. A draft bill which would have allowed municipalities to issue such a ban, forcing entrepreneurs to advertise in Czech as well, was rejected by deputies in the lower house on Friday. The bill emerged in reaction to complaints from municipalities and citizens. For instance Karlovy Vary, which has a large Russian community, pointed out that a large number of shops and restaurants only advertise their goods and services in Russian which is often incomprehensible to the locals. Critics of the bill, led by the Civic Democratic Party, said it would be an unjustified bureaucratic intervention into local enterprise.