By the way, Mr. Zelezny has failed to answer Mr Pecina's questions, relating to inaccuracies in Zelezny's CV:

Dear Mr. Zelezny, Would you please specify which were the "illegal TV studios" you worked with during the Soviet occupation?

Dear Mr. Zelezny,

Can you give me more details about your activities in the non-Communist student movement in the1960s? Do you refer to activities within or without the official youth organization (the Czechoslovak Union of Youth, [i.e. the equivalent of the Russian Komsomol] CSM, later known as SSM, the Socialist Union of Youth)?

Ondrej Neff, Prague science fiction writer and the editor of the Neviditelny Pes internet daily (and a former fellow-student of Mr. Zelezny) has now asked Mr. Zelezny why he calls himself a "dissident" in his CV and whether he knows what the word "dissident" means.

Perhaps it is interesting that Mr. Zelezny has chosen to answer questions only on those issues which he presumes are dear to American audiences. This is not how he speaks to his Czech audiences.)

Jan Culik - Glasgow University

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Welcome to the Web! Welcome to the first in a series of Internet-based TV programs especially produced for users of Central Europe On-Line, and I am Vladimir Zelezny. I'm General Director of Television Nova, Nova TV in the Czech Republic, which is currently the most successful TV in this country. And I run regularly - yes, that's our studio - and I run regularly every Saturday noon a program called Call the Manager, or Call the General Director. It's a call-in program with questions which I answer in most open way I'm ready and/or I'm able to do and I will follow this example on this webcasting, not broadcasting. Okay, let's start with questions which you kindly sent me to Internet, which are very interesting and I was very surprised that many of those questions are pretty similar to those which I am getting every Saturday from domestic viewers of this program. So that's start of the first experimental Ask Zelezny program.

First question from [?], USA: To what extent are former Communist party hard-liners still involved at the highest levels of businesses? In the past, it was impossible to be a director of a large company if one did not wholeheartedly support the Communist regime. Are those people still holding those positions?

Yes! Yes, many of them are still holding high-ranking positions in the industry, they are managers of big banks and some in some other important positions in our economy. You cannot expel one million people from ten-million population just because they were Communists. And do not forget that Communists were the only people who were allowed to acquire some sort of managerial skill and knowledge. Of course, in the newest generation we will never be able to distinguish between Communist and non-Communist... I hope this question will never be repeated in this Czech Republic because if Communists will behave in a proper way, if they will obey the law, then everything is okay. The least danger Communist is an entrepreneur - successful entrepreneur because he will never try to destroy the system in which he is successful. So why not? I would not distinguish between Communists and non-Communists now, but of course if they form special alliances among themselves it might be dangerous for the future, that's true.

Amy from Buffalo, New York, USA: Are the people of Central Europe doing enough to combat racism and discrimination towards the Roma population? And another question, same topic. Glenn from Tight Springs Valley, USA: Would you consider running a show on Nova for the Romany community in Czech and Romany languages?

Why not, but such program is already on the public service, on the public TV, which is regularly shown and there is not the problem. More problematic is the first question: Are they ready to combat racism? Czechs are pretty xenophobic because they were raised for two or three generations under totalitarian regime, and that isolationism - do not forget that our Western border was the border with outer space, with the... it was the end of the world. And we were alone, confined in our country, so there was no experience with open-mindedness, no experience with alien creatures like people talking different languages and so on and so on... Unfortunately, it's a big problem in the Czech Republic. Nova TV currently run a program which showed emigrants, Roma or Romany, emigrants to Canada. And reaction of the Czech population was outrageous. Very strange. There were many local mayors, local mayors of cities started to collect money to buy air-tickets for local Roma population to be... let's say sent, not expelled, but sent to Canada or to any other country, just to avoid problems which are created with the fact that we have inside our society a minority which is different. It's a big problem. This part of Europe was multilingual and multicultural for many many hundreds of years. Suddenly we are in very curious and strange situation: after several hundreds of years for the first time we are in homogenous situation, in situation of homogenous country which is very exceptional. We've expelled already Germans. Jews were killed by Nazis. We avoided problems with Slovaks dividing our country. And now we have the last problem, Romany people. Will we send them to Canada? My question is very simple: Who is the next? Who next will be different?

Would you agree to hire a Romany newscaster for Nova general news? That's question from Berlin, from Urschula.

Yes, why not? By-the-way, it's not the problem for us, we shocked Czech population with introducing a weather-caster or weather man which is not in appearance typical Czech. Look at him! (A weather forecast clip.) Yes, that's Ray Koranteng, one of most popular presenter of TV Nova. He's... well, black, if you wish... if you with to use this word, or he is African non-American, I don't know how to say it properly not to comply with regulations which are currently used in United States. He's probably African Czech, if you wish. So he is a very popular presenter especially among older women, his pronunciation of Czech is perfect. Absolutely perfect. And he will stay on... and I hope for more - why not Roma, Romany newscaster in the news? Why not?

Daniel, Kingston, Ontario, Canada: As a dissident you might be very sensitive to many political and social issues, but how do you incorporate them into your everyday life? Do you give equal opportunity to females and racial minorities. And I was wondering how do the men treat the women in Eastern Europe - is there a lot of male chauvinism?

The first part of question is simple to answer. We had no racial prejudices and we had no prejudices against women. By-the-way, in TV Nova more than half of top management and middle management in this company is performed by women. And their performance is outstanding. They are perfect. Perfect professionals. And we have no problems. This is, by my opinion, by far more important than the second part of the question about male chauvinism. Because my guess is that it's exaggerated. Maybe I will provoke you now but there were many programs in the Czech Republic where women - women actors, actresses made jokes on men sitting in the beer pubs, drinking beer, how stupid they are, and no man objected. So my guess is that we are not so oversensitive to this issue. Maybe you are. Please, let me know why. Because it's very interesting, probably it will come to Czech Republic, it is already here. Fortunately enough, the extent of this problem, a problem, which in my opinion is partially artificially created, is not so big.

Tim from Albuquerque, well, sorry for pronunciation, USA: My friends came back from a trip to Europe and said... well, that's a typical example of male chauvinism, ...and said that women are beautiful in Prague. Is that true? And are you married yourself?

I am married and it's true.

William from Vancouver, Canada: How does the Czech public feel about joining NATO? And another question, same topic. Sasha from Winnipeg, Canada: It seems that few Czechs are interested in joining NATO. Why? Have the people forgotten about the reasons behind the Velvet Revolution? Do the Czech people care anymore or have they been devoured by consumerism like so I've heard? Why it is important for the Czech Republic to be part of NATO? It's question from Barbara Bethpage, USA.

Question of NATO is very important question and my guess is that it's not properly explained to Czech people that Czech Republic will not be only part of solidarity, of Western alliance, it will not only cost us money as it's presented by left-wing parties. It will provide us with umbrella, which forever - we hope for it - forever, will put Czech Republic into the place in Europe where traditionally this country should be. It is part of Western world, Western thinking, and we would like to stay there. It was just an unfortunate interruption. Between 1939 and '89, for those years we were part of a completely different world. So, hopefully, it will happen and I will deal with this question probably next time in bigger detail. Thank you for your attention and please don't hesitate to ask me any question. I will try to answer. Thank you for your attention. Bye!