http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144270 en Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radio Broadcasting cr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas) webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144270 When Václav Havel came to Prague Castle, it meant a complete upheaval not only of the old system of governance, but also of the way things were run at the historical seat of the president itself. One of those who has been at Prague Castle since the very outset of that period is architect and art historian Zdeněk Lukeš, who worked closely with Václav Havel on revamping the castle and shared in the exuberance of the early administration. Speaking here with Christian Falvey, he recalled working with Mr Havel in the Civic Forum, the first post-Communist political movement. Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 urn:uuid:ec4df2f9-9faf-58cd-ab8d-e54d3dbfd2e9 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144242 The late Václav Havel is now being remembered as a great statesman and human rights advocate. But he was also a prominent literary figure. In fact, before he became an opposition leader in communist Czechoslovakia, he was already established playwright whose plays appeared on stages worldwide. Václav Havel’s literary agent Jitka Sloupová, from the Aura Pont agency, talks about what inspired his dramas that quickly gained acclaim both at home and abroad. Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 urn:uuid:e51cc276-a10b-513e-9b6b-285ed04b0347 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144207 Continuing our commemoration of the late president Václav Havel we talk with Tomáš Sedláček, the renowned economist who, in 2001 as a precocious university graduate, came to work for Mr Havel as an economic advisor at the age of 23. In a special interview, he began by describing his first meeting with the iconic figure. Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:07:31 +0100 urn:uuid:7d6189d4-6ef5-50d3-a365-00605ec4d085 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144156 This play is vintage Havel, his only radio play, dating back to the first half of 1968, when he was at the height of his creative powers. Not long after it was completed, Soviet tanks brought an end to the reforms of the Prague Spring, and for two decades the play was left on the shelf. Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:32:55 +0100 urn:uuid:5bf80c33-28d9-5270-ad3c-89482a5d6d17 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144141 Václav Havel was born in 1936 into a family that the communists with their love of labels used to describe as "bourgeois-reactionary". There is certainly no denying that the family was bourgeois. For several generations they were one of the wealthiest and most influential Prague dynasties. Václav's grandfather built the famous Lucerna Ballroom and his uncle was the founder of the Barrandov Film Studios, which laid the foundations for the Czech film industry. But in describing the family as "reactionary", the communists were doing the Havels an injustice. Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:49:00 +0100 urn:uuid:3da133a4-4a9c-5bcd-adf3-ac3c4942b860 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/143354 On Prague’s Na Prikope street, in the very heart of the city –right next to McDonalds – is a Museum of Communism. What comes as a surprise to many locals and foreign visitors is that this private venture is the work of an American businessman who owns a number of bars and restaurants in the Czech capital. Glenn Spicker came to Prague 17 years ago, on a wave of interest in the post communist world. Unlike others he launched a successful business venture and stayed. As Glenn gave me a tour of the museum, he explained what made him branch out so far from his field of enterprise. Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:11:49 +0100 urn:uuid:ab3c527f-478f-5b7e-b96f-c0cc1e6a7844 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/143332 In today’s Special our guest is the charming Eva Jiránková, born in 1921 to a notable Prague family in the early years of the First Republic. As a junior, Jiránková was a competitive skier and as a young woman she graced the covers of popular Czech magazines – something of a charmed life. But that all ended in September 1942 when her husband, Miloš Jiránek, was arrested by the Gestapo, and spent the next years in internment and concentration camps. Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:64811756-61b6-5bde-87c0-2891f019a540 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/142817 Every year in October the Czech Republic honours those who have contributed significantly to promoting the country’s good name abroad. This year, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg bestowed the annual Gratias Agit awards on thirteen personalities from around the world to thank them for their work. On occasion of the country’s national holiday we bring you the thoughts and experiences of three Czechs who live abroad, but who never severed ties with their homeland and are proud of their Czech roots and national heritage. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:63ebe96f-a35e-5849-b13b-1744ecfa858b http://www.radio.cz/en/article/142844 The independence of Czechoslovakia, which we celebrate each October 28, was the result of a movement of many decades, and when at least it came, in 1918, after four hard years of war, the joy must have been very palpable. There are so few alive today who can remember that period, but it is certainly not lost to us, and one of the ways we can relive it is through the music of the day. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:70d37871-7f51-5d78-a5d5-f6071a93f703 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/142647 In this special programme, David Vaughan looks at a unique project to encourage children with musical talent who come from some of the poorest families in the Czech Republic. The project enables primary school children to learn to play with some of the country’s foremost classical musicians. Its success is a reminder of the power of music to cross boundaries of language, class and culture. Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:da0f075c-c64e-5c45-9f1b-24ca9362401e http://www.radio.cz/en/article/142031 For the occasion of September 28, we're here at a place that some people actually call the real centre of the Czech Republic. Not the geographic centre to be sure, but certainly the focal point for much of the Czech Republic’s rocky modern-day history. It’s a statue of a man on a horse (which people call ‘the horse’ when they arrange one of the hundreds of meetings that take place here each day). But it’s of course the man on the horse that has overseen everything over the last hundred years from the declaration of Czechoslovak independence to the various political demonstrations that gravitate here today. Above me is of course Saint Václav, or Wenceslas, from which the surrounding square takes its name, and his likeness has adorned this place for at least three hundred years, in different incarnations. Legend has it that when worse comes to worst for the Czech lands he will come un-petrified, and ride away to quash their enemies – a disconcerting prophesy when one considers the parades of Nazis and Communists that the statue saw come and go. But even in that, there is a good point to be made: this symbol of Czech statehood is indomitable; the legacy of St. Václav rides on through the ages, now for about the 1,076th year. Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:14e93207-fdc5-5e1d-8b7d-bd21f31367f7 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/141932 The Czech Republic is experiencing something unseen in its modern history. After two decades of neglecting the problems of the country’s Romany minority, ethnic and social tensions erupted last month in a remote northern Bohemian district of Šluknov where thousands of people take to the streets every weekend to protest against the Romanies and their lifestyle. Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:11:01 +0200 urn:uuid:09e00e32-2911-58fb-b119-728cdf2ab297 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/141577 Ahead of the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11 on Sunday, Czech Radio’s Martina Mašková interviewed the US Ambassador to Prague Norman Eisen. In the interview the ambassador is asked about Czech cooperation in the War on Terror, CIA renditions at Czech airports, and al Qaeda. Mr Eisen begins first though by discussing the attacks on that fateful September day, including where he was when the first plane hit. Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:52:35 +0200 urn:uuid:21e3d326-813c-5f24-982a-dea11d4af798 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/141323 Set up in 1936 primarily as a tool to counter propaganda from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Radio Prague itself long served as a mouthpiece for communist propaganda. Since the 1990s however, the station is the only Czech public news service, providing information about the Czech Republic in six languages to audiences around the world. Marking Radio Prague’s 75th anniversary, the Czech-born, UK-based writer, and former Radio Prague reporter Benjamin Kuras and Radio Prague’s own David Vaughan discuss the most interesting moments in the station’s history. Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:32:46 +0200 urn:uuid:897298a2-2844-5f3f-ad34-4b80d5290e48 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/140832 For a lot of Czechs, Pavel Bobek is THE voice of country pop, thanks to his hugely popular Czech-language versions of hits by U.S. singers like John Denver and Kris Kristofferson. He is also a trained architect, and was a close friend of Jan Kaplický, who died in 2009 after a long and fruitless struggle to have one of his plans realised in Prague. In this, the second part of a two-part interview, Pavel Bobek speaks about Kaplický and aspects of his own career. But first he discusses his love of Johnny Cash, whose songs he recorded on his most recent LP. Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:02:48 +0200 urn:uuid:77ac7128-e563-5196-a51f-6b85ad9f7bf9 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/140801 Pavel Bobek is one of the greats of Czech popular music, best known for his Czech versions of songs by American artists like Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, and his long-time hero Johnny Cash. A trained architect, he started out in the Czechoslovak bigbít (rock’n’roll) scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, singing with an early version of the band Olympic before becoming a member of the Semafor theatre, one of the country’s most vibrant cultural institutions in the Communist era. Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:25:27 +0200 urn:uuid:024fa3e1-5060-5948-837e-8b59a8769148 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/139343 Czech-American relations are going “from good to great”, according to the US ambassador to Prague Norman L. Eisen who will soon complete his first five months in the Czech Republic. Mr Eisen has been working to shift the focus from missile defence, a top priority during the era of President George W. Bush, towards cooperation in nuclear energy, commerce and the fight against corruption. In an interview for Radio Prague, Ambassador Eisen looks back at some of the developments of the past five months. Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:41:44 +0200 urn:uuid:2be9ab7e-b25d-515c-80d3-e611478c2a30 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/138499 Every year in May, ceremonies take place on town and village squares across the Czech Republic to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II. Since the fall of communism, a particular effort has been made to remember the Czechs and Slovaks who fought in the British armed forces, whose role was long neglected by the communist regime. Recently rediscovered recordings offer a unique and highly atmospheric insight into the life of the Czechoslovak RAF pilots. David Vaughan has more. Sat, 14 May 2011 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:0056113c-f49f-52e5-bdf8-89a1a19da2eb http://www.radio.cz/en/article/138115 The Czech government has been through a great deal in the nine months since the three-party coalition was formed. While struggling with wide-ranging systemic reforms, the ministries have been hit by one scandal after another, culminating in a major government crisis this month, in which it was unclear whether the coalition would survive. In a special feature today we talk with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and chairman of the Civic Democratic Party, Petr Nečas, about the issues that the government has faced and where it stands now. Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:58:56 +0200 urn:uuid:9ef7635f-897a-55b8-81cc-f98c103c8dd9 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/137953 Radio Prague's special Easter programme focuses on the music of Czech composer and conductor Jaroslav Krček, who has arranged and recorded a number of traditional folk songs pertaining to this time of year as well as a number of his own compositions, which draw heavily on Czech Easter traditions for their inspiration. Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:fbcf2778-f955-5d4c-b83f-9b2649e620c1