Panorama | All stories

In this week's Panorama, we visit the South Moravian town of Mikulov, which from July 27th - 29th hosted the eighth annual Nations of the River Dyje Festival, a unique celebration of ethnic and cultural diversity.

Under communism, when travelling was far from easy, many Czechs' main form of escape was spending time at their country cottages. In the 1990s it remained an extremely common part of life in the Czech Republic, with many families continuing to load up their cars and head to their chata every weekend. But now, it seems, this is changing.

At a time when many Czech doctors are leaving underpaid jobs to pursue better wages elsewhere, it may seem surprising that a growing number of medical students from the United States and other countries come to Prague every summer to attend a broad study programme in Czech hospitals.

The National Gallery has just announced that 260 million crown renovation work, started at Prague's Schwarzenberg Palace in 2002, has come to an end. The palace, which stands on Hradcany square opposite Prague Castle, is one of the most beautiful Renaissance structures in the city.

In today's world, interactive media is a normal part of our everyday lives. It might surprise you, though, to learn that it is a full 40 years since the launch of the world's first ever interactive film. "Kinoautomat", as the system was called, was a hit as Czechoslovakia's entry at the 1967 Expo - before the country's communist authorities effectively killed it off. Now however, four decades later, it has been revived in Prague.

There are some 8-10 million Romany people in the world and most of them are living in eastern and central Europe. It is therefore natural that after the fall of communism, the role of the Roma media became imperative. In the 1990s, it was instrumental in influencing the way information about the ethnic community was processed. But today, it is getting harder and harder for Roma media to exist. With a lack of finances and pressure from the state and their own people, Romany journalists say they are fighting a constant battle.

Bohemians' Dolicek stadium celebrates its 75th birthday this year. Over the years, this Prague landmark has become synonymous with a club that has a rich and venerable history.

Early in June US President George W. Bush will visit the Czech Republic. The American Head of State will be meeting with his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus and other senior politicians. Washington's visa policy and its plans to build a radar station on Czech soil are topics expected to be discussed the most. To get the US position on both issues ahead of Mr Bush's visit, our colleague Daniel Raus from Czech Radio 6 met with the US Ambassador to Prague Richard Graber.

One of the first things Czech children learn at school is that Czechs are the descendants of Slavic tribes and they speak a Western Slavonic language. The Slavs came to these parts of Europe some time in the 6th century AD. But since then waves of migration as well as foreign invaders coming from the East, West and North have left their genetic marks on the population. The Prague-based biotech company Genomac has recently started providing commercial DNA tests to those who would like to trace their earliest ancestors in a continuous paternal or

Lubos Jednorozec is one of the few men who managed to escape the communist prison camps of the 1950s still alive today. But that was not his only attempt to win his freedom. Despite being repeatedly apprehended he never gave in and kept battling until the late 1960s, when he managed to leave Czechoslovakia and move to the US. From there, Lubos Jednorozec, now in his early 80s, tells his remarkable story in this edition of Panorama.