Mr. Jiří Dienstbier was born in Kladno on April 20, 1937. After graduating from the School of Arts at Charles University in Prague, he joined Czechoslovak Radio where he worked as a foreign correspondent abroad, including Western Europe, Indonesia and the U.S. In 1968, he protested against the occupation of Czechoslovakia and participated in the anti-occupation broadcasting of Czechoslovak Radio. In 1977, he signed the "Charter 77" and, from 1979 to 1985, served as its speaker. Because of these activities, he was persecuted by the communist regime and spent three years in prison. Dienstbier helped topple the communist regime in former Czechoslovakia. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, he was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia and held this position until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. Together with his Austrian and German counterparts, he cut the barbed wire at the borders with these neighboring countries, which symbolized the end of the "Iron Curtain" in Europe. From 1998 to 2001, he served as the Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights for Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. In 2008, he was elected into the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, where he acted until his death on January 8, 2011, as the Chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security. Dienstbier was one of the 50 World Press Freedom Heroes honored by the International Press Institute at its World Congress in Boston in 2000.