Vladimir Zelezny

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Vladimir Zelezny is a member of the European Parliament from the Czech Republic.[1] At one time his influence in the Czech media led to him being dubbed "central Europe's Rupert Murdoch".[2]


Early career

According to his European Parliament biography, Zelezny was a student leader from 196-1968, and earned earned a Philosophy Doctorate at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, in 1969.[3] He worked as a journalist, television commentator, director from 1967-1973.[4] During the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he defied orders and broadcast pictures of tanks driving through Prague.[5]

in the 1970s and 1980s, Zelezny was an editor, writer of television screenplays, televised plays and books.[6]

In the 1990-91 period he became 'chief dramatist' of the electoral campaign of the Civic Forum, Spokesman for the Civic Forum, and Government spokesman and advisor to the Prime Minister.[7]

TV Nova

Zelezny was one of six intellectuals who applied in 1993 for a private television license broadcasting serious current affairs and cultural programmes. According to the Independent, the station's actual output turned out to be very different:

For outside investment, he struck a deal with the American firm Central European Media Enterprises (CME), headed by Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder empire. When the licence had been awarded, Mr Zelezny sidelined the other five who applied for it. Then he created Nova, with a mix of Latin American soap operas and news bulletins dominated by gory details of murders and road accidents. Intellectuals and the chattering classes despised the network, saying it was destroying the Czechs' long cultural tradition. But most of the population loved it, to judge by viewing figures.[8]

In 1999, Zelezny ousted CME by arguing the broadcasting license was held by an obscure company he controlled, making CME's £20 million investment in the Nova company worthless. He then set up a new version of Nova on his own.[9]

Lauder subsequently sued the Czech Government, which was eventually forced to pay him €353 million in compensation.[10] Zelezny was arrested and charged with tax evasion and defrauding his creditors in 2001.[11]

Politics

Zelezny was elected to the Czech senate in 2002.[12] According to the East European Constitutional Review, there were widespread suspicions that he only ran, in the South Moravia seat of Znojmo, to secure parliamentary immunity.

He is currently facing three criminal charges: one count of tax evasion and two counts of damaging creditors, which could bring prison sentences of up to 20 years. Zelezny had no

prior connection to Znojmo and selected the district chiefly for its high level of unemployment and the high ratings for TV Nova.His easy first-round election has dealt a blow to the integrity of Czech democracy and seriously compromised the institutional credibility of the Senate, which was already strained, with many calling for the abolition of the institution.[13]

In 2003, fellow senators voted to lift Zelezny's parliamentary immunity, to allow police to investigate him on fraud charges.[14]

Zelezny was elected to the European Parliament in 2004.[15] He set up his own party, the Independent Democrats in 2005.[16] In October that year the European Parliament also voted to remove his parliamentary immunity.[17]

He contested the Czech elections in 2006 but failed to win a seat.[18]

In 2007 a Prague court gave Mr Zelezny a suspended jail term and fined him nearly €250,000 for not paying import duty on paintings he had bought abroad. He later appealed the ruling.[19] In May 2009, the Prague High Court upheld the jail sentence but overturned the fine. It also upheld the sentence of George Novotny, a Czech-American who had brought the paintings into the country.[20]

Libertas

In January 2009, Zelezny registered a Czech branch of Declan Ganley's Libertas party, although Libertas spokeswoman Anita Kelly said he would not necessarily be the Czech party leader.[21] The Irish Times suggested that Zelezny was hoping to bolster his chances of retaining his seat in the European Parliament.[22]

Geert Wilders

In March 2009, The editor of the Czech anti-Islam website eurabia.cz, Edvard Steinsky, said that Zelezny had invited Geert Wilders to visit the Czech Republic.[23]

Notes

  1. ↑ Vladimír ŽELEZNÝ, European Parliament, accessed 28 May 2009.
  2. ↑ Justin Huggler, Sun sets for man who gave Czechs the naked weathergirls, Independent, 24 April 2001.
  3. ↑ Vladimír ŽELEZNÝ, European Parliament, accessed 28 May 2009.
  4. ↑ Vladimír ŽELEZNÝ, European Parliament, accessed 28 May 2009.
  5. ↑ Justin Huggler, Sun sets for man who gave Czechs the naked weathergirls, Independent, 24 April 2001.
  6. ↑ Vladimír ŽELEZNÝ, European Parliament, accessed 28 May 2009.
  7. ↑ Vladimír ŽELEZNÝ, European Parliament, accessed 28 May 2009.
  8. ↑ Justin Huggler, Sun sets for man who gave Czechs the naked weathergirls, Independent, 24 April 2001.
  9. ↑ Justin Huggler, Sun sets for man who gave Czechs the naked weathergirls, Independent, 24 April 2001.
  10. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  11. ↑ Justin Huggler, Sun sets for man who gave Czechs the naked weathergirls, Independent, 24 April 2001.
  12. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  13. ↑ [Constitution Watch - A country-by-country update on constitutional politics in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR, East European Constitutional Review (a joint publication of the New York University School of Law and the Central European University), 1 December 2002.
  14. ↑ Katya Zapletnyuk, Zelezny case highlights imperfections in parliamentary immunity law, Cesky Rozhlas, 29 January 2003.
  15. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  16. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  17. ↑ Pavla Horáková, EP strips MEP Zelezny of immunity, Cesky Rozhlas, 13 October 2005.
  18. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  19. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  20. ↑ Court upholds conditional sentence for Czech MEP Zelezny, Financni Noviny, 11 May 2009.
  21. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  22. ↑ Jamie Smyth, Czech Libertas recruit has conviction for evading duty, Irish Times, 22 January 2009.
  23. ↑ CZECH PORTAL ON ISLAM DANGER INVITES FITNA'S AUTHOR TO CZECHREP, Czech News Agency, 20 March 2009.
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