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]
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]