I would ask you for a bit of patience, please. Just hold on for seven minutes - so that I can explain the problems which we are encountering and which we can't get a handle on.

I'll start with a question. Mrs Sustrova from Breclav asks "I have heard on the radio that TV NOVA has been sold to the Americans. Is it really true?"

If Mrs Sustrova had listened carefully to a different radio station, and not the one she was listening to - then she would have discovered from the statement of Mr Stepanek from the Commission for Radio and Television Broadcasting - the Commission official spokesman even - that this Mr Stepanek discussed a suggestion - his own, I emphasise, his own - he was quite proper and didn't say that it was the opinion of the Commission - his suggestion that the Commission might take us to court.

Again. Now you already know, you have already been with us for three years so you know what I'm going to say. They want to take our broadcasting licence away, again. When Stepanek says this, it really always sounds quite delightful. This time we are supposed to be punished for non-objective reporting of events in our country. Stepanek no longer talks about other matters. But I do.

You are witnesses to the fact that in the last fourteen days, there has been an ongoing campaign in the press and everywhere else aimed precisely against TV NOVA. Mr Stepanek set it in motion through his news conference or rather the conference of Commission. I would be very pleased if you would bear with me for two minutes. So that we won't be accused of cutting or editing these clips and manipulating them, we are deliberately letting it play in full. Please watch and see what is now possible in our country seven years after the revolution. In a democratic market-oriented country where there are supposed to be laws which don't put any limits on foreign ownership in the Czech Republic, even in the media. Listen. You will not see a clip from a session of the Central Committee of the Czechslovak Communist Party in 1976 nor the opinions of the chairman of the Cental Committee, let's say, from 1981. You will hear the representative of the Civic Democratic Party on the Commission of Radio and Television Broadcasting, but it sounds like something from that past. Watch carefully. We give you the uncut clip and won't interfere with it.

Stepanek: If you find a private terrestrial TV broadcaster in Europe, which is 93 per cent owned by a foreign company, I'll eat my hat. This is unnatural in Europe. Deputy Chairman of Parliament Kasal states that it is a normal development, but I say that the Deputy Chairman of Parliament is in error. It is not normal, and while the Deputy Chairman says that the only important thing is that the company pays its taxes, I say that is only half the problem.

The problem is where the profits are going to, and it's no secret that the American investor, originally CEDC later renamed CME, is simply not bringing anything to the Czech Republic. In fact, CME borrowed its money to found NOVA within the Czech Republic. Neither I nor anyone from the Commission would be so preposterous as to belittle the importance of foreign investment for the development of the Czech Republic. What I am suggesting is that this was not really investment at all.

Again, the problem is where the profits are going. The Czech viewer pays for TV NOVA. The citizens of this country pay by buying the yoghurts, washing powders and chewing gum which are advertised on NOVA. The problem that this money, aside form a part which goes to taxes, leaves the Republic. From these profits, CME is building its television stations elsewhere, in neighbouring countries.

[This is not quite a balanced quotation from the news conference. Translator's Note.]

Zelezny: Mr Stepanek is lying. It is quite sad. I am saying this here openly, as it occurs to me. First of all, the Americans don't own 66 nor 93 nor 88 percent. They own only 1.25%. [i.e.in CET 21, the original group of Czech intellectuals, but CME is now gaining control, through Mr. Zelezny, over 60 per cent of the CET 21 shares. This has not yet been officially registered. Translator' s Note.] It was the Commission, it was Mr Stepanek, who said to us that the television is owned by CET 21, which as the licenced company, is the station's operator and holder of the television licence. In this firm the Americans are limited to 1.25%. They did not want to be in contact with Mr Stepanek. Well, who would knowing his opinions on the market economy? I wouldn't be surprised if foreign investors gave this republic a complete miss after such a comment. You listened, you heard it...

It reminded me of the communist finance minister back in 1948, [after the communist takeover] - I think it was in September or October - who said: We cannot permit that money, earned by our working people, be controlled by the Americans. So, have the Americans taken control, let's say stolen, any property in the Czech Republic?

The Americans own 1.25%, and if Mr Stepanek keeps to the law, to his own opinions which he has so often made known, he will have to confess it. It completely shook me and you, you who conduct business, you small entreprenuers, you know that what he said is nonsense. Investors don't bring anything because they borrow money within the Czech Republic. An amatuer's conception of what enterprise is all about! That I have a billion at home in the piggy-bank, that I break the piggy and take my billion to the Czech Republic only so that everyone, especially Mr Stepanek, sees that I brought a billion or a billion and a half - that is the idea of a dilettante who has never engaged in entrepreneurial activity of any kind in his whole life and knows nothing about business.

You see, it was a Czech bank that was lucky enough to be able to lend this money to CME. Everyone of you who is involved in business knows very well that banks don't give anything away to investors and businessmen. They don't give away money, they sell it - it is a business for them. That means further earnings for the Czech Republic, and the price of that money is exceptionally high in the Czech Republic. The interest rate is remarkable: 11,12,13, 14 per cent typically. [Translator' s Note: Czech annual inflation is 9-10 per cent.] So it is very good business for our Republic. And if they were willing to borrow this money in the Czech Republic - and you can see that they could have borrowed elsewhere at 5 or 6 percent, or even 4% in the USA, but that's beside the point. You have that piggy-bank at home to help you guarantee the loan, that purchase of money. This is how business works in the world, and no one does it any differently. Maybe Mr Stepanek does, but I don't want to get into his business affairs.

(heavy sigh) Profit. You were listening. A very dangerous sentence. How is it possible that profit flows out of the country? Profit doesn't flow from broadcasting by itself. Profit comes from other services which CME offers through another company called CNTS, the Czech Independent Television Group [Translator's Note: CTNS is NOVA TV], and Mr Stepanek knows very well that this profit doesn't concern him at all because this is not profit which is generated by a media enterprise under the eye of the Commission and Mr Stepanek.

I know that all this may be a bit complicated for you, but please, I ask of you: please confront what I am saying with what Mr Stepanek has said. I cannot say it better than a recent article in a national newspaper which has dedicated itself to confronting these dangerous statements. They carried a headline "A Marxist in the Civic Democratic Party" about Mr. Stepanek. His are really fundamental Marxist opinions - that is, opinions of that Marxism as it developed in this country for several decades. And then that populism! Our Czech money! Our Czech yoghurt! Investment in advertising is investment in advertising. No one is forcing the viewer to buy that precise brand of yoghurt. But of course the government is forcing the citizens to pay the public service TV licence. Advertising just provides the viewer with information about that yoghurt. So it is investment which is normal legal investment, and Mr Stepanek should understand the role of advertising and this industry, after all, pays taxes. The attack on Deputy Chairman Kasal, well... Mr Kasal reacted remarkably correctly: if they pay taxes, if they employ people, if they are producing, well then good, and that is why we want foreign investors here and why we are trying to entice them to do business here. I recall that Minister of Trade and Industry Dlouhy, when someone once asked him what he thought was the cause of the slow-down of economic development in the Czech Republic, he responded that it was the variable confidence of foreign investors who want to invest their money in the Czech Republic. This money is better than Czech export because it creates opportunities here...

And I would like emphasise one other point. It's about that profit which Mr Stepanek mentions. First, it is not used for the development of other television stations. CME doesn't need it. CME has enough resources generated elsewhere. We fully condemn this statement. We will consider bringing this to the attention of the appropriate authorities so they can evaluate whether any violation of the law was made by such a statement.

Also, I would like to say that these Americans are so swell that they even leave half of the profits here. Not long ago, I sat with the president of CME at an airport, and, pencil in hand, we counted up everything that the Czech Republic gave to the American imperialist (to use the old phraseology). They invested 30 million dollars, and they got back not quite ten after three years. That is a proper investor! And what's more, they did not invest in the television station but in services which are connected with the station. That shouldn't concern Mr Stepanek whatsoever. The thing is, the law wisely recognised who is unjustly interfering with business affairs and by what amateurish behaviour they interfere in the massive transfer of billions which are in motion in this industry. The media is also a business. It is not just about business, it is also about information. It is about influence, and we all know very well what we have in our hands. We are not abusing it, and we will not abuse it.

OK What is there left to say? On the radio yesterday, Mr Stepanek said that the he could initiate some kind of legal action on behalf of the Commission. At the same time, he said many words which we know are not true, but I don't want to try to divide Mr Stepanek and the Commission. That would be cheap. I think that the statements of one person, who alone feels agrieved and is attempting to use his position on the Commission in order to threaten that information is non-objective and improper.

Its all about a very basic problem, and this society should say, whether it wants to be a normal society with a market economy or whether it wants to return to that type of formula which we heard. Again, I repeat, we played the tape for you unedited and didn't cut his statement. (loud sigh).

OK That's enough. We will continue broadcasting. Only... it's terrible that... some silly clown can't just attack us in such a public manner and shield himself using the name of an institution, thus spoiling the efforts of many hard working people. There are 400 people who worked tirelessly to establish this station over the past three years. They are overworked because they are so few and because they are undertaking work that is not easy. They now have 65% of the Czech viewership. They are the model for building all commercial television in Central and Eastern Europe - these evil Americans are participating in all that.

Let all the jealous ones choke.

See you next week in our programme "ASK THE DIRECTOR".

(Translated by Andrew Stroehlein)