Jan Petránek

Czech journalist, commentator and dissident

Jan Petránek (28 December 1931, Prague – 10 November 2018, Prague) was a Czech journalist, commentator and dissident during communist era of Czechoslovakia. He was a signatory of Charter 77.^[1]^[2]

Biography

Petránek was a journalist for Czech Radio, the public radio broadcaster, at the time of the Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.^[2] He was fired by Czech Radio's management shortly after the invasion, but resumed underground, independent broadcasts during the country's Normalization period.^[1]^[2]

In the late 1980s, Petránek also became involved with the samizdat publication of the Lidové noviny newspaper, which had been banned by the Communist government since the 1950s.^[2]

Petránek became the editor of the Lidové noviny once the newspaper was legalized following the Velvet Revolution.^[2] He was also rehired by Czech Radio after the fall of communism in 1989.^[1]

In 2015, President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman awarded Petránek the Medal of Merit.^[1]

Petránek died in Prague on 10 November 2018, at the age of 86.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lazarová, Daniela (2018-11-11). "Czech Radio journalist Jan Petránek dies at 86". Radio Prague. Archived from the original on 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Journalist and commentator Jan Petránek dead at 86". Prague Daily Monitor. 2018-11-12. Archived from the original on 2018-11-16. Retrieved 2018-12-03.