Czech President Miloš Zeman has offered 100,000 crowns as a reward to anybody who finds the article ‘Hitler is a gentleman’ which he insisted the legendary journalist Ferdinand Peroutka once wrote.

The president’s spokesman has been searching for the alleged article but has not been able to produce it so far, Radio Prague reported.

Zeman insists that Peroutka wrote favourably of Hitler, but critics charge that the article was a fabrication.

Meanwhile, Peroutka's granddaughter Terezie Kaslová has filed a lawsuit against the president over his words and is demanding an official apology.