Pelikán, Jiří, 1923-1999

Jiří Pelikán (7 February 1923 – 26 June 1999) was a Czech journalist and politician. Born in Olomouc, he was a member of the National Assembly in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and later a member of the European Parliament for the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). In 1939, Pelikán joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) in exile and took part in the Czech resistance to Nazi Germany occupation during World War II. From 1953 to 1963, he assumed leading functions in the KSČ-led International Union of Students. Until 1968, he was the director of the Czechoslovak Television and a member of the parliament from 1964 to 1969. Pelikán fully supported the Prague Spring and organized the first live debate in common with the Austrian television ORF. When the troops of the Warsaw Pact entered Prague on 20 August 1968, he organized the resistance among journalists. In 1969, he fled the Gustáv Husák regime and was given political asylum in Italy. He was elected to the European Parliament for the PSI in 1979 and again in 1984. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, he became a member of the Consultative Council of the then Czech president Václav Havel from 1990 to 1991. He died in Rome in 1999 after a long battle with cancer.