Sociologist Jiřina Šiklová receives the Senate’s Silver Medal award 

Sociologist and Charter 77 signatory Jiřina Šiklová has received a Silver Medal from the Speaker of the Czech Senate Miloš Vystrčil in recognition of her contribution to the development of civil society and freedom.

Mrs Šiklová, who was born in 1935, was an active campaigner for political reform in Communist Czechoslovakia and was a signatory of Charter 77. She assisted in the smuggling of literature both to and from the country, for which she was briefly imprisoned in 1981.

Mrs Šiklová received the medal at a ceremony in the garden of the Senate on Wednesday evening.