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Press ReviewPress Review
What looks like the final instalment in the TV Nova saga dominates the
front pages today - all the papers lead with news that the Czech Republic
finally paid 335 million dollars in compensation to the station's former
investors on Thursday, after the country lost a final appeal in an
international court of arbitration. The papers also carry more details of
Vladimir Zelezny's dramatic departure from the post of General Director.
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Press ReviewPress Review
Two domestic stories share the limelight on today's front pages - they are
the dismissal of TV NOVA boss Vladimir Zelezny and the continuing search
for a blackmailer who has threatened to poison hospital food with cyanide
unless he receives 300 million crowns.
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Current AffairsTV Nova boss sacked by new owners
The Czech media scene will never be the same again. After nine years at the
helm of the country's first commercial television station TV Nova -
general director Vladimir Zelezny has been sacked by the company's new
owners. The fifty-eight-year old Mr Zelezny, the man behind TV Nova's
astounding success, and a Senator since last November, was always a
controversial figure on the Czech media scene after making TV Nova the
best performing station in the region and then pushing his Bermuda-based
partners out of the business. Now it looks like his career at Nova, marked
by business triumphs and legal scandals, may be over once and for all.
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Current AffairsCzech Republic left with 350 million dollar bill in wake of TV Nova ruling
The dispute over one of Europe's most successful commercial TV stations
appears to be entering its final stages. The Czech government has begun
talks with the Bermuda-based Central European Media Enterprises or CME, on
how to pay more than 350 million dollars in damages for failing to protect
the company's investment in TV Nova. A court of arbitration ruled on
Friday that the Czech state had failed CME and its chief investor Ronald
Lauder when the country's Broadcasting Council allowed Nova's director
Vladimir Zelezny - formerly Mr Lauder's business partner - to wrench the
station away from CME in 1999. But not everyone thinks the Czech tax-payer
should pick up the bill: among them is commentator Vaclav Pinkava.
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Current AffairsZelezny case highlights imperfections in parliamentary immunity law
Czech senators deprived their colleague, Vladimir Zelezny, of parliamentary
immunity last Thursday, making it possible for the police to investigate
him on fraud charges. The Zelezny case has highlighted flaws in the Czech
immunity law, which gives members of parliament stronger protection from
prosecution than that enjoyed by legislators in other European countries.
The Czech government wants to change the situation.
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