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SpecialA brief look at 'protest' music plus the underground scene in Czechoslovakia from 1968 - 1989
Fifteen years ago to the day student protestors took to the streets of
Prague demanding an end to one-party rule, kicking off a process that
would quickly - far more quickly than anyone expected - lead to the
unravelling of Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Music, too, played an
important role: with the outcome of those turbulent days far from certain,
tens of thousands demonstrated on Wenceslas Square, singing the civil
rights anthem, 'We Shall Overcome'.
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One on OneNo nostalgia among children of former Communist leaders
Wednesday is the 17th November - 15 years after the huge demonstrations in
Prague that marked the beginning of the end for the communist system in
Czechoslovakia. So today we bring you a special programme instead of our
usual One on One. In yesterday's broadcast you had a chance to hear the
children of former dissidents talk about their lives then and now. Today
we talk to two different women who used to be on the other side of the
fence - their parents were prominent Communist officials before 1989.
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Talking PointChildren of the Underground
To mark the 15th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, Nikola Brabenec set
out to speak with the now full grown children of dissidents involved in
Charter 77, the human rights declaration which brought together the
dissident movement.
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Letter from PragueMemories of the fall of the Berlin Wall
The 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this week has brought
back many memories for me. I had lived in Berlin in 1986 and 1987, and in
that extraordinary year of 1989 was missing it hugely. I was in London, in
debt and in love with my fleeting memories of a girl who had lived in a
grey flat in that deeply atmospheric and rather crumbling West Berlin
inner suburb of Kreuzberg.
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Current AffairsFall of Berlin Wall amidst upheaval in all of Eastern Europe
15 years ago, on November 9th 1989 the infamous Berlin Wall fell, bringing
down a barrier that had held East Germans behind the Iron Curtain and the
most potent symbol of divided Europe. The fall of the Wall was not just
the end of the communist regime in East Germany but anticipated the
political changes in the whole of Eastern and Central Europe.
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Current Affairs15 years on: the East German exodus recalled
It may seem hard to believe but it is fifteen years since the world
witnessed the dramatic days of social upheaval and protest that eventually
led to the fall of Communism in Europe. At the time reform movements in the
Soviet satellites were given a new impetus by the Soviet Union's last
leader Mikhail Gorbachev who announced "Life punishes those who come
too late". The scenes in Berlin in November 1989 are vividly
remembered, but we sometimes forget one of the last episodes just before
those heady days - in the autumn of that same year thousands of East
Germans determined not to wait another minute, found a rather
unconventional way of leaving, to seek asylum in the West.
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Letter from PragueThere IS such a thing as a free lunch!
A couple of years ago, during one of our Christmas specials, Peter Smith
and I did a short sketch on what it's like to be a reporter for Radio
Prague. In the programme, we answered made-up questions, one of which was
"with so many listeners from all over the world and different kinds
of interests, how do you decide what press conference is important enough
to be covered in the programme?" Our answer was simple: the one that
is guaranteed to have the best refreshments. We were just joking, of
course, but little did we know that there actually is a group of some
twenty-five or so 'journalists' who actually go to press conferences just
for the breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the other promotional freebies
that are given out. And, the people concerned have even been given a name.
They're called "Holub's fleet"...or should they now be called
Dita's fleet?
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Current AffairsPribyl case reveals loopholes in security screening
The row around the appointment of Pavel Pribyl as head of the government's
office is now over. Mr Pribyl's problems became untenable when it emerged
that he had commanded a riot police unit which beat up anti communist
demonstrators in the streets of Prague in 1989. Pribyl resigned last
Friday and will most likely be replaced by a man whose past could hardly
be more different - former dissident Ales Sulc. Pribyl is gone -but a lot
of questions remain unanswered. How is it possible for a man with such a
history to have gone undetected for so long and to hold such an important
post? And how many others are there like him? Daniela Lazarova has been
trying to find out some of the answers. Daniela, is the Pribyl case an
isolated one?
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Current AffairsArchitects ordered to apologise to former communist teacher
Three former students from the Faculty of Architecture at Brno's Technical
University were ordered by a Moravian court on Thursday to apologise for
libel against their former teacher some fourteen years ago,
during the turbulent days of the Velvet Revolution. The student body
leaders labelled communist party representative Jan Snasel an
"arrogant demagogue" and an "opportunist". More
WitnessIvan Plicka: in the wrong place at the wrong time during "Palach Week"
It's exactly fifteen years since one of the events that accelerated the
fall of communism in Czechoslovakia. January 1989 was the 20th anniversary
of the death of Jan Palach, the student who had set himself alight on
Prague's Wenceslas Square in protest against the Soviet occupation. All
through the week starting from the 15th January thousands of people
gathered beneath the statue of Saint Wenceslas with flowers, to remember
Palach's sacrifice. Their quiet protest was put down by police in riot
gear using water cannon, a gross over-reaction that helped to turn many
Czechs against the regime. The young architect Ivan Plicka was a chance
witness of the demonstrations that are now known as "Palach
Week", and as he now recalls, he almost found himself being arrested.
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