CCCCC AA RRRRR OOOO LL II NN N AA CC AA A RR R OO O LL II NNN N AA A CC AA A RRRRR OO O LL II NN N N AA A CC AAAAAA RR R OO O LL II NN NN AAAAAA CCCCC AA A RR R OOOO LLLLLL II NN N AA A STUDENT'S E-MAIL NEWS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA School of Social Science of Charles University Smetanovo nabr. 6 110 01 Prague 1 C.S.F.R. e-mail address: CAROLINA@CSEARN.BITNET *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* C A R O L I N A No 41, Friday, September 18, 1992. ---------------------------------- We are apologizing to our english readers that we are a week later with the translation of the interview below. We would like to find more enthusiastic people for doing the job of translations. Also, we would like to find some co-workers for reporting about CS issues abroad. Editors. ----------------------------------- The Czechoslovak government decided to remove the director of Czechoslovak Press Agency (CSTK) Ing. Petr Uhl. We decided to introduce Mr. Uhl to Carolina readers. We would like to express thank to a man, who spent a long period of his life struggling for independent news coverage and spent a couple of years imprisoned because he did not hesitate to express his political attitudes. * * * Petr Uhl was born in 1941 and got his diploma at the Czech Technical University (CVUT) in Prague. Originally he taught at a technical secondary school, in 1969 he was arrested and spent four years in prison sentenced for his political activity in the leftist students_ organization, Movement of Revolutionary Youth (HRM), which protested against the Soviet invasion in 1968 and the ensuing process of so-called "normalization". He was one of the founders of Charta 77, cooperated in editing the basic text of the Charta, written by Vaclav Havel. In 1978 he became a member of the Committee for the Protection of the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS) and a year later was arrested with V. Havel, J. Dienstbier and others. Then he worked as stoker. From 1984 until November, 1989, he continued working in VONS and edited INFOCH (Independent Inforamtion about Charta 77), and since 1989 he worked in the independent information agency VIA, which had its offices also in other capitols of states of the former CMEA. After the 1989 Revolution he worked for a short period in the press office of Civic Forum (OF). In June 1990 he was elected to Federal Assembly as a representative of OF. Nowadays he is a member of Civic Movement (OH). He was appointed as a director of CSTK on November 15, 1990. As a deputy he was one of the strong critics of the so-called "screening law". During our interview he was still in his position, since he has not been formally removed yet. But according to the official statement of the government, the new director will be appointed on September 15. The new one will be Ing. Tomas Kopriva, member of Federal Assembly reprezenting Civic Democratic Party (ODS) there. * * * Mr. director, what do you think is your main success during your work in CSTK? I think we succeeded to in establishing an institution which does not depend upon the state and any party and which has a feeling of its own independence. There was practically no influence upon news coverage. Another success is the quality and amount of news. We distribute more than 500 news stories a day in Czech, English, Spanish and German. It is twice as much as two years ago. Since our stories are used by such agencies like Reuter they seem to be good. We succeeded in reorganizing people without shocks and hurting. CSTK had 1750 employees when I came, now it is less than 750. We succeeded in getting funds from government for our network in foreign countries. This governmental money is 9% of our budget. We still publish a news magazine, have a public relation office, Radio Channel and a couple of other activities. And what about failures? We didn_t succeed in establishing one network for the whole of Czechoslovakia. CSTK emlpoyees in Slovakia are very independent. We foresaw the development in Czechoslovakia incorrectly and were trying to establish a trinitarian institution - Czech, Slovak and Federal. We should have probably tried to aim for the division of the whole institution. I also didn_t succeed in giving our emmployees higher salaries. And we have some debts in the bank. You have sent a questionnare to different media recently, asking about the evaluation of CSTK stories. What was the result? First, there was no answer from Czechoslovak TV and Czechoslovak Radio. Most of the answers were positive. The negative response was only from Lidova demokracie daily (newspaper of Peoples_ Party - Christian Democrats - which existed even during old regime --Carolina note) and Metropolitni Telegraf daily (newspaper close to ODS, Carolina note). There were some critical notes from other dailies criticizing organization, technical problems etc. That we don_t, for instance, follow deadlines of different newspapers. And criticims of content? Yes, Lidova demokracie evaluated our news coverage as leftist. But it was really exceptional. What do you think about your remove? Is there any political background, or did you make some serious mistake? It is difficult to say that my removal is just a result of the fact that I am a member of a movement in opposition. I was struggling hard not to express my political attitudes in my professional career. I have recognized that my attitudes have no relation to, and thus are in no conflict with, my profession. Any kind of "party thinking" may damage the whole work. On the other hand, there was some conflict with Vaclav Klaus during the fall of OF, when Mr. Klaus said that I was an enemy of OF. Then I have some dissension with V. Meciar from Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). And HZDS said nothing against my removal. It might be seen as a systematic removal of former dissidents from important public posts. WEhat do you think about it? The position of former dissidents is a very complex question. It differs from person to person. There is always a question how to live side by side with people who somehow supported the old regime. And now, these people are building up a new system. What can we do? I think, people like J. Dientsbier, Vaclav Havel, and maybe me, too, we recognized that our role is marginal. But some of former "members" of our social group are now collaborating with other people and they develop an anticommunist hysteria here. Fortunately, this trend is weaker now. There is another problem, our ability to become an element of a new system, our adaptability. Frankly, it is really very difficult. Therefore, I don_t want to interprete my removal as some political act, but on the other hand, it is probably positive that we are leaving. However, it is the result of a democratic election. Anyway, we have chance to work in this world as anybody else. For instance in the political sphere - which I do not like. Why? There is a development towards political structure based upon party membership in this country. That makes me anxious. That is the reality and I don_t have a lot in common with such a development. If such a system does not break basic human rights, I am not against such a system. I just hesitate to become a co-builder of it. The last question: speaking about future, can you see some dangerous posibilities of development in our country? Yes, I do. And not only economic dangers like inflation, unepmloyment, collapse of economic functions - which seems to me to be nowadays extremely critical - and enviromental problems. There are also political and cultural dangers. More broadly, I see a danger in an increase of Czech nationalism and isolation, especially in case the country really splits into two. I am afraid of too strong an influence of German investment and German culture. There are also some tendencies toward authoritanianism in our country - but these signals are not very strong either in Slovakia or in Bohemia. Prague. September 9, 1992, Interviewed by Vaclav Trojan Translation: Jan Jirak and Hugh Agnew ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This news may be published only with "CAROLINA" designation. 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