Miro (Miroslav) Neoveský, a longtime journalist with RFE/RL's Czechoslovak and Slovak services, has passed away on May 25, 2021 at the age of 85 in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania.
Miro, who left Czechoslovakia in 1969, joined RFE/RL in the 1980s after working for the Voice of America in Washington DC.
His tenure at RFE/RL included service as Assistant Director of RFE/RL's Czechoslovak Service, Washington correspondent for the Czechoslovak and later Slovak Service, and Slovak Service Director from 1994 until his retirement in 2002.
Miro was known to RFE/RL listeners by his air-name Karel Prochazka.
With his open and friendly smile and readiness to help colleagues across the organization, Miro led the Slovak service in challenging political times, when his native Slovakia was in the middle of the fight for democratic identity, facing political crises, witnessing attacks on free media and journalists.
Before Slovakia's joining the European Union and NATO in 2004, RFE/RL's Slovak service under Miro's leadership remained an important source of information in the country that was then on a thorny way of democratic reforms.
Despite the challenges, deadlines and pressures, Miro was always professional, maintaining high journalistic standards, and most importantly, always supporting and protecting his colleagues for many of whom he was not just a tutor and teacher of broadcast journalism but like a father as he belonged to the older generation of the RFE/RL's veterans.
We remember Miro as he was -- a noble, elegant, well-dressed man, a heavy smoker, and a wise and generous person.
Those were difficult, but also great years that we spent together. It was a privilege to work with you, Miro.
-- Daniel Bútora, RFE/RL Slovak Service Director (2002-2004)
on behalf of his RFE/RL colleagues --Peter Gabaľ, Sergej Mihalič, Milan Nič, Anna Rausová, Daniel Raus, Jaro Rozsíval, Gabriel Sedlák, Ján Šalgovič, Jana Šimkovičová, Anna Cline-Šišková, Ivan Štulajter, Richard Trsťan, Lucie Vopálenská, Štefan Hríb, Katarína Solíková, and Atilla Lovász.