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One on OneWorld Radio Day with prize-winning journalist Jan Bednář
The fortunes of journalist Jan Bednář were only beginning to unfold when
he was kicked out of the School of Economics after signing the
anti-communist Charter 77 and compelled to work as a night watchman for
several years. The son of a dissident imprisoned for publishing samizdat
literature, the regime was glad to be rid of him when he applied to leave
the country in the early 80s. He went to England and was able to complete
his studies in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University,
from where he proceeded to join the Czechoslovak service of the BBC in
1985. Today he produces a foreign politics programme for Czech Radio 6.
Last week, Jan Bednář was awarded the Ferdinand Peroutka prize, the
highest journalistic accolade in the Czech Republic. On the occasion of
the
very first World Radio Day we met with Mr Bednář in the studio and asked
him first to recall how he came to be involved in radio journalism in
exile. More
From the ArchivesAfter Heydrich: demonstrations for and against the Reich
We ended the last series of From the Archives at one of the darkest moments
in Czech history, when on June 10 1942 the Nazis destroyed the village of
Lidice. This was a cruel and arbitrary retribution for the assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich, the so-called Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia and
Moravia. Many people had given shelter to the Czechoslovak patriots
parachuted from London to carry out the assassination, and the Nazis took
extreme measures to cow the Czech nation into submission. More
Czech BooksHana Wilson: messing about on boats after two decades on the airwaves
When she lost her job after twenty years in the Czech section of the BBC,
Hana Wilson was far from despondent. She simply allowed her hobby to take
over her life. Hana, who left Czechoslovakia back in 1980, has spent much
of the last decade on the waterways of Britain. Now she has published a
book, introducing Czechs to the wonders of life on a narrowboat. Hana
Wilson is David Vaughan’s guest in this week’s edition of Czech Books.
More
Czech BooksIvan Jelínek: a poet in the newsroom
If you had been listening to Radio Prague back in the late 1930s, it is
very likely that you would have heard the voice of Ivan Jelínek. He was
one of the pioneers of broadcasting in Czechoslovakia, and an early
presenter of our broadcasts to Britain and North America. From the radio
headquarters here in Vinohrady, he witnessed many of the dramas leading up
to World War Two, including moment of the German occupation itself. During
his wartime exile in Britain and in the decades that followed the war, Ivan
Jelínek became a familiar voice in the Czechoslovak section of the BBC,
and he continued to broadcast from London until his death in 2002, at the
age of 93. But Ivan Jelínek was not just a broadcaster. His lifelong
passion was poetry. In Czech Books this week, I’ll be looking at
Jelínek’s fascinating life and work.
More
From the ArchivesAfter Heydrich: demonstrations for and against the Reich
We ended the last series of From the Archives at one of the darkest moments
in Czech history, when on June 10 1942 the Nazis destroyed the village of
Lidice. This was a cruel and arbitrary retribution for the assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich, the so-called Reichsprotektor of occupied Bohemia and
Moravia. Many people had given shelter to the Czechoslovak patriots
parachuted from London to carry out the assassination, and the Nazis took
extreme measures to cow the Czech nation into submission.
More
Current AffairsAre Czech children's care homes still using cage beds?
On Tuesday night, the BBC broadcast a report on its 10 O’Clock News
programme, showing children in Czech care homes locked-up in caged beds.
The use of cage beds in Czech institutions such as children’s homes has
provoked international outcry in the past, and at the beginning of 2007,
they were banned by Czech law. The report suggests, however, that the
majority of Czech children’s care homes are continuing to use them, and
violating the law - but the government claims that nothing illegal is shown
in the report, and that the beds featured are more like cots than cages.
More
One on OneJulek Neumann – son of the stage
Julek Neumann is currently appearing at Prague’s Divadlo Ypsilon in a
Mark Twain play which he himself translated into Czech. The new production
marks his return to the theatre’s stage after a gap of nearly two and a
half decades. In between he lived in Vienna and then London, where he
worked for the Czech section of the BBC World Service during what was a
period of change. When I met Julek Neumann in a café in Dejvice the other
evening he first told me a little about his family background.
More
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