One on One | All stories

My guest in One on One is Simon Panek. Today he is well known as the director and one of the co-founders of People in Need, one of the Czech Republic's biggest non-governmental organizations. People in Need works around the world to ease the suffering of people in times of crisis - be it war, famine or flood, and has become hugely respected far beyond this country's borders. But Simon Panek first came to the public's attention for a very different reason. It was seventeen years ago this month that he was at the heart of the events that came to

In today's One on One Jan's guest is young documentary filmmaker Linda Jablonska who has made a splash on the Czech scene with "Left, Right, Forward", a new documentary about the behind-the-scenes lives of two curious groups on the Czech political spectrum: the young conservatives and the young communists. The film is extremely engaging and at times also very funny: throughout, Jablonska maps the routines and events of both groups, from charity balls to daytrips to demonstrations, and it's no surprise the feature film took the better part of a year

It's hard to believe that it's almost seventeen years since mass demonstrations brought about the end of Czechoslovakia's communist regime. Czechs have come a long way since 1989, but in many ways the country is still coming to terms with the four decades of totalitarian rule. Throughout November the Czech NGO People in Need is running a project called Stories of Injustice, showing schoolchildren powerful documentaries about communist-era oppression, and also bringing living witnesses into the schools. The children have also been asked to seek

Simon Broughton is a successful British television director whose work includes a number of documentaries on music from around the world, shot in locations ranging from Portugal to Afghanistan. He is also editor of Songlines magazine, a leading British periodical devoted to world music as well as co-editor of the acclaimed Rough Guide to World Music.

Natasa Newton is one of the founders of the Anglo-Czechoslovak Trust, an organisation established not long after the fall of communism, in 1990. Its main aim was to foster ties between young Czech and Slovak music students and their counterparts in the UK - in all over 900 students have so far taken part in the programme. Natasa Newton told me all about the Trust when we met at her London home last week, though I first asked her about her own background.

Ticketpro, the Czech Republic's first and largest ticketing agency was founded by a Canadian from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Serge Grimaux, the brains behind Ticketpro and the company's owner, has enjoyed great success since launching his business in Prague. When we met at Ticketpro's offices in Prague 1 recently, I first asked Serge Grimaux how he ended up in the Czech Republic?

Gerhardt Bubnik is a successful attorney, a former international figure ice-skating referee and a highly respected professional. Despite all his achievements in both law and skating Gerhardt Bubnik will be most likely remembered as the very first Czech to graduate from Harvard Law School. When I met Mr Bubnik recently I began by asking him if he remembered his decision to apply to Harvard.

My guest on this week's One on One is Jeremy Druker, executive director of the media development organisation Transitions Online (TOL). The organisation has two roles - it publishes a high-quality Internet magazine covering 29 former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. It also provides extensive media training for journalists from those post-communist countries.

Radio Prague reported recently on the alarming rise in the creation of Roma ghettos, where up to a third of the country's 250,000 or so Romanies end up, with no job and a bleak life ahead of them. One group trying to help Roma out of the ghetto and enter mainstream Czech society is the Romani student organisation Athinganoi. Rob Cameron spoke recently to Gabriela Hrabanova, the group's 27-year-old director.

In this week's One on One, my guest is Martin Palous, the new Czech Ambassador to the United Nations. Martin Palous has long been a leading Czech intellectual and his c.v. lists many important positions and publications. He was one of the first people to sign Charter 77 and was the dissident group's spokesman in 1986. When change came in late 1989 he was a key figure in the Civic Forum movement, and since the Velvet Revolution he has held numerous positions in politics, the civil service, and academia. Martin Palous was the freshly-appointed Czech