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Today in Mailbox: Problems with sending e-mail messages to Radio Prague, comments on interview with Holocaust survivor Zdenka Fantlova, Talking Point on foundation of Charter 77, Radio Prague on DRM. Listeners quoted: Evelyn Coviello, Constantin Liviu Viorel, Helmut Matt.

Zdenka Fantlova
Welcome to the last Mailbox this year. Thank you very much for your Christmas and New Year's greetings which have been arriving in recent days.

Before we get on to your regular letters - it still appears that some of you are experiencing difficulties sending e-mails to Radio Prague's generic address [email protected]. Our internet team are looking into the matter and before the bug is fixed we recommend that you try and use the English section's address [email protected] instead. We are very sorry about that but you know how it is with computers...

Now, Evelyn Coviello from New York listened to Monday's One on One with Holocaust survivor Zdenka Fantlova.

"Thank you, Radio Prague, for providing a forum into the lives of these heroes who fought the atrocities of WW II. It is so dire that these stories be shared with the world. I am appalled that certain groups around the globe challenge and deny the abominations of the Holocaust. You just cannot make up these invaluable testimonials. Zdenka Fantlova's lucidity and clarity has inspired me with her words 'If you feel like a victim - you become a victim and it takes all your strength away'. She spoke of her 'survival kit'. I hope nowadays the kit is tucked neatly under her bed - she is now free to open it for anyone willing to share her faith and hear her truths."

Let me just remind you that you can hear the second part of the interview tomorrow, that's Monday, December 18th.

1968
On Tuesday, Constantin Liviu Viorel, who listens to us in Romania, heard Talking Point looking back at the foundation of the Charter 77 movement 30 years ago which played a key role in bringing about the end of communism in Czechoslovakia.

"The report was very interesting for me because it reminded me of the night when the Russian army invaded your country. I was very young in 1968 and on that August night I was with my parents in Austria and I remember that we slept in a camp with a large group of Czechoslovak tourists. I shall remember all my life that in the morning all of them cried and panicked. Believe me that I cried with them, too. In that year, the situation in Romania was similar to the situation in your country. Our country was on the brink of being occupied by the Russian army, too."

As you may know, Radio Prague recently launched trial digital broadcasts in Europe, in English and in German. Our listener Helmut Matt from Germany has heard one of the broadcasts and even sent us a short recording of the programme.

"Today I had the true pleasure to listen to your digital shortwave transmission in the new DRM-Mode. The sound was really excellent and there where absolutely no interruptions at all. I recorded the program with my MD-Recorder and converted it for you into an MP3-file. Of course I hope that your programs will be on a daily DRM-schedule soon. I don't have a DRM-Radio yet. Instead I use my modified communication receiver [...] which I connect with the sound device of my PC. [...] It was a real pleasure to hear Daniela Lazarova's charming voice in such a brilliant quality of sound."

Thank you very much for your e-mail and for the short clip - it really does sound absolutely clear.


Even though this is the last Mailbox this year, you can send us your answers to our monthly competition till the end of December. The question is:

In our December quiz we'd like you to tell us the name of the British playwright and screenplay writer who was born in 1937 in what is now the Czech Republic. In the 1970s he visited Czechoslovakia, met the then dissident Vaclav Havel and was instrumental in translating Havel's works into English. He was knighted in 1997.

Please, send us your answers by the end of December to [email protected] or Radio Prague, 12099 Prague, Czech Republic. We'll be looking forward to your answers as well as your questions, comments and, of course, reception reports in 2007.