Josef Pazderka (CZE)

Journalist, Foreign Affairs Commentator, and Editor-in-Chief of Czech Radio Plus

Josef Pazderka is one of the most respected Czech journalists, specializing in the post-Soviet region. He studied history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, and development studies at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.

He began his career at the humanitarian organization People in Need, working in Russia and Africa. From 2005, he worked in the foreign news department of Czech Television, first as a correspondent in Moscow, then in Warsaw. He extensively covered the crisis in Ukraine from 2013 to 2015.

In 2016, he joined the publishing house Economia as deputy editor-in-chief of the news server Aktuálně.cz, which he led from 2018 until August 2022.

Since October 2022, he has been the editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Plus. He is a recipient of four Journalism Awards, including for reports from Beslan, Somalia, and commentaries on Russia. He is the editor and co-author of the book Invasion 1968. Russian View, published in Czech, Polish, Russian, and English.