Vladimír Škutina

Vladimír Škutina (16 January 1931 – 20 August 1995 ) was a Czech writer, playwright, journalist, screenwriter and television producer. He was a leading television reporter for the events of the 1968 Prague Spring, and is closely associated with that event in the minds of the Czech public. His use of political satire led to his arrest and imprisonment from 1962 through 1963, and again from 1969 through 1974.

After his release, Škutina returned to television and enjoyed a period of high popularity as a Czech television journalist for the remainder of the 1960s until he was arrested again in 1969. Following his release, he became one of the first signatories of Charter 77 which documented human rights abuses made by the Czechoslovak government. His action increased his disfavor with the government and he was forced to leave Czechoslovakia; living in Switzerland in exile. He also penned three books.

In 1988, Škutina received the Mark Twain Award for humor (not the Kennedy Center prize of the same name), and in 1990 the Peace Prize of the American Universities for his essay "What's humour for, once we have freedom?". He returned to his native country after the Velvet Revolution and he died of cancer in Prague on 20 August 1995 at the age of 64.