Jiří Dienstbier

Jiří Dienstbier
Senator from Kladno
In office
25 October 2008  8 January 2011
Preceded by Ladislav Svoboda
Succeeded by Jiří Dienstbier Jr.
Personal details
Born 20 April 1937
Kladno, Czechoslovakia
Died 8 January 2011 (aged 73)
Prague, Czech Republic
Political party KSČ, ČSSD and others
Alma mater Charles University in Prague

Jiří Dienstbier (20 April 1937, Kladno – 8 January 2011, Prague) was a Czech politician and journalist. He was one of Czechoslovakia's most respected foreign correspondents before being fired after the Prague Spring. Unable to have a livelihood as a journalist, he worked as a janitor for the next two decades. During this time, he secretly started Lidove noviny.[1]

After the end of communist rule in 1989, he became the country's first non-Communist foreign minister in four decades, a post he held until 1992. In 2008 he was elected to the Czech Senate for the Kladno region.

In 2000, the Vienna-based International Press Institute named him one of its 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years.[2]

Awards and Honors

In 2013, Dienstbier was posthumously awarded the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award by the Prague Society for International Cooperation.[3]

References

  1. "Jiri Dienstbier: A Czech's career". The Economist. 13 January 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  2. "World Press Freedom Heroes". International Press Institute. 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  3. List of Hanno R. Ellenbogen Award Winners on Praguesociety.org

External links