Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellowship

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Fellowship News

Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellows Visit The U.S.

Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellows Meet U.S. Media

The 2013-2014 class of Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellows recently spent two weeks in Washington, D.C. and New York taking in the sites--at some of the leading media outlets and foreign policy institutions in the United States. More

More Fellowship News

Fellowship Events

April 09, 2014

Czech Embassy Hosts Panel On Media Freedom

Ambassador Kurt Volker hosts a discussion on media freedom in Russia and Ukraine, featuring Havel Fellows Ivan Beliaev, Ildar Gabidullin and Natalia Sedletska, Atlantic Council expert Irena Chalupa and Petr Mareš of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Russia -- Pedestrians walk past an wall painting depicting a map of Crimean peninsula bearing the colours of Russia's national flag in Moscow, March 31, 2014

April 07, 2014

Russian Propaganda And Russian Minorities In Eastern Europe

Havel Fellows Ivan Beliaev, Ildar Gabidullin and Natalia Sedletska discuss Russia’s use of nationalist propaganda during a Google+ Hangout organized by the McCain Institute for International Leadership.

Czech Republic -- Former Czech President Vaclav Havel speaks at RFE/RL editorial meeting, Prague 27Mar2007

March 18, 2014

U.S. Congress Pays Tribute to Havel

In a tribute to Vaclav Havel, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution to place a bust of the former Czech president in the U.S. Capitol's Freedom Foyer.

VHJF Class of 2013-2014 (l-r): Ivan Beliaev, Natalya Sedletska, Ilgar Gabidullin

November 18, 2013

Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellows Welcomed In Prague

The 2013-2014 class of Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellows began training at RFE/RL's Prague headquarters this month.

Ukraine -- Natalie Sedletska Reports From Euromaidan, December 2013.

March 08, 2014

Recovered Yanukovych Documents Dripping With Secrets

2013-2014 Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow Ildar Gabidullin.

March 11, 2014

Tartar Journalist Covers Crimea For East, West Audiences

March 12, 2014

Thinking Globally, Reporting Locally

January 10, 2014

Sedletska On Reporting From The ‘Epicenter’ Of Euromaidan

A group of journalists and criminal investigators from the post-Yanukovych government has been working to dry out the papers and the first 500 have now been photographed and placed on a special website.

February 25, 2014

Havel Fellow Fishes Out Deposed President's Dirty Secrets

April 04, 2014

Tatar-Bashkir Service Reports On Crimea

Belarus -- Students at the Belarusian Humanities Lyceum in Minsk have studied in secret since the school, which holds instruction in the Belarusian language, was closed in 2003.

February 25, 2014

Reporting In Local Languages Speaks Volumes

A photo from the Belarus Service's live-blog coverage of an aborted protest on September 9, 2013, honoring a man who died in a Minsk jail.

October 25, 2013

Gabidullin One of September's "Best of RFE/RL"

About the Havel Fellowship

The Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellowship (VHJF) is an initiative of RFE/RL and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and is generously supported by the Prague Freedom Foundation. Launched in 2011, it is inspired by the late Czech leader’s belief in the transformational power of free speech and builds on RFE/RL’s legacy of promoting more open societies through journalism.

Learn more about the VHJF here.

About Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel was the first post-revolutionary president of independent Czechoslovakia in 1989, and the first Czech president in 1993. He was also a renowned playwright, poet and essayist. Vaclav Havel's name is synonymous with peaceful resistance to authoritarianism and commitment to individual liberty and dignity. In his career as a writer and playwright, Havel established himself as Europe’s most renowned dissident voice. During his time as president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, Havel used his position of influence to speak out as an unyielding advocate for democratic voices the world over. Long a listener and supporter of RFE/RL, Havel invited RFE/RL to take up residence in Prague in 1995, planting RFE/RL’s headquarters in a city where its broadcasts were once banned.

Vaclav Havel's Legacy, Through The Lenses Of Friends

Your JavaScript is turned off or you have an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Vaclav Havel in 1975 at his country cottage, called Hradecek, in North Bohemia
Havel and his first wife, Olga, at Hradecek in 1974. Olga, who died in 1996, was a fellow dissident and signatory of the Charter 77 human rights initiative.
The Havels with friends Jan and Karla Triska in 1975
A photo taken during a long night of conversation at Hradecek in 1975
Friends and actors gather for a reading of Havel's play "The Garden Party."
Havel prepares for a summer gathering at the cottage, 1975.
A private staging of Havel's play "Audience" in 1976, with the author in one of the main roles
Havel appears in a window of Prague Castle in the early days of his presidency, on February 25, 1990.
The president addresses crowds at Prague Castle on February 25, 1990. He had just returned from a visit to the United States, where he spoke before the U.S. Congress.
Havel, a rock fan, meets members of the Rolling Stones on August 18, 1990, the day of the music legends' first concert in postcommunist Czechoslovakia.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher accompanies the Czechoslovak president on Wenceslas Square during an official visit to Prague on September 18, 1990.
Havel wades in the Atlantic Ocean in Cabo da Roca, Portugal, near the westernmost tip of the European continent, on December 14, 1990.
Havel and his wife, Olga, pray alongside Polish President Lech Walesa at Prague Castle on September 16, 1991.
A photographer takes an official portrait of the Czechoslovak head of state in 1992.
Havel with his second wife, Dagmar, whom he married in 1997, at Hradecek around 2000
Nearing the end of his presidency in January 2003, having already moved of the president's residence, Havel appears to breathe a sigh of relief.