Turek deletes two diploma photos over errors and differences

Politician Turek posted two photos of his master’s diploma on social media and soon deleted both: people had found typos on them and differences between the two images. The trigger was criticism of his claim to be a “diplomat by training.”

The debate over Turek’s education began on Sunday’s Partie on CNN Prima NEWS, where the panel discussed Russian athletes taking part in international tournaments. He disagreed with his party colleague, Sports Minister Boris Šťastný, who announced last week that he would file an official protest against the return of Russian hockey players. Turek said that, as a “diplomat by training,” he would handle the situation differently.

That phrase drew criticism: several commenters argued that finishing a university program in diplomacy does not make someone a diplomat. In response, Turek decided to prove his studies with a photo of his diploma, but only raised more questions.

The typo vanished, the differences stayed

On the first photo, the name of the program is misspelled: “Mezinárodní a diplomnitcká studia” instead of “Mezinárodní a diplomatická studia.” There is also an error in the word for “law,” and a háček sits above the letter “u” instead of a ring, a typical flaw of generated images. On the second photo the name is spelled correctly, but the available images show that the documents also differ in other details, such as the placement of the text and the look of the signature.

A label reading “AI content” that appeared under both posts also drew attention. By itself it does not prove that the diploma was created by artificial intelligence: the label may also be linked to digital editing of the photo. Still, the differences sparked debate about the document’s authenticity.

What the school says

University College Prague confirmed Turek’s master’s degree back in July 2025 to Seznam Zprávy. According to the school, he passed the state final exam and defended a thesis on American foreign policy and the views of former President Václav Klaus. The current doubts concern mainly the origin and appearance of the published photos, not whether he completed his studies.

The editors of Novinky asked the school’s management to confirm whether the published documents match diplomas the school issued, whether either photo shows Filip Turek’s authentic diploma, and to explain the typos and differences. No response had arrived by the time of publication.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz