Illustrative photo – Long-time director of Czechoslovak and Czech Free Europe broadcasting Pavel Pecháček (right) spoke on June 8 at the KDU-ČSL election convention in Olomouc. In the picture on the left is the chairman of the KDU-ČSL Pavel Bělobrádek.
Prague – The last farewell to journalist Pavlo Pecháček, who died in January at the age of 82 in the United States, will take place in the St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle before noon today. Cardinal Dominik Duka will celebrate the mass. Pecháček was for many years the director and later the president of the Czechoslovak and Czech departments of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). He also led the Czechoslovak broadcast of the Voice of America in Washington for five years. Under his leadership, Free Europe received numerous awards from Czech and foreign organizations.
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Pecháček was born on July 2, 1940. At first he worked as an auxiliary worker, later he graduated from DAMU. In 1968 he emigrated to what was then West Germany and started working for the radio station Svobodná Evropa in Munich.
In 1974 he was fired due to budget cuts. He then moved with his family to the USA, where he worked at the Voice of America. In 1989, he returned to Free Europe again, where he directed Czech broadcasting.
Pecháček was one of the initiators of the Ferdinand Peroutka Award, the purpose of which is to increase the prestige of the work of journalists and columnists. In March 2004, he was elected chairman of the Association of Journalists with the Ferdinand Peroutka Award.
In 2015, the then Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka awarded Pecháček and the former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Svoboda Kevin Klos for their work for democracy and freedom, when on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the move of the radio from Munich to Prague, awarded the Karel Kramář medal. At that time, the Prime Minister recalled Pecháček's words that “the best propaganda is the truth”. The Karel Kramář Medal is a commemorative medal awarded by the Prime Minister as a thank you for proven services to the restoration of democracy, human rights and freedoms.
