AWARD DATE: 1968
AWARD NAME: Best Daily Newspaper or Wire Service Reporting From Abroad
AWARD RECIPIENT: Peter Rehak
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: Associated Press
Peter Rehak of the Associated Press was the right man in the right place, when Soviet troops crossed the border of Czechoslovakia last August 20 while a collaborator cut off the microphones of the announcers on Radio Prague. While the black-out lasted, the population remained unaware of what was happening. Rehak, who was born in Bratislava in 1936 and speaks Czech, Slovak, French and German, was in the Alcron Hotel in Prague when the radio receiving sets went dead. He sensed immediately that some ominous development was occurring in the politically disturbed situation of the country. From his familiarity with the communications systems in Prague, he recognized the possibility that the Communists who had silenced Radio Prague might have forgotten to throw the switch also on an auxiliary public-address system through which announcements of general interest are “piped” into the city’s restaurants and other meeting places. His hunch was correct. Remembering that one such outlet was available in the hotel’s garage, he slipped into that area and listened to the broadcast in Czech, revealing that Soviet forces were already inside the country, and that the population was asked to offer no resistance. How he managed to get out the news flash that apprised the rest of the world of the development has not been revealed, but his exclusive was one hour ahead of all other media in reaching the outside. In Washington concurrently, Secretary of State Dean Rusk was testifying before the Democratic platform committee, when he was handed a copy of the AP bulletin. The Secretary passed it to the committee chairman, Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana who read it into the open microphone. His world beat led to his ouster from Czechoslovakia, the Government there having refused to renew his visa when it expired in September. He was reassigned to the AP bureau in Bonn, but has since been transferred to Vienna, to strengthen the coverage of eastern European affairs. Rehak’s reports from Prague about the Czech struggle against Soviet domination, and about the invasion, won for him the 1968 award of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association for outstanding work by a staff member of the wire service, in addition to the OPC distinction. While still a boy, Rehak was taken to Canada by his family and grew up there. He is an alumnus of McGill University, and joined the Associated Press in Frankfort in 1962 after having worked for the Windsor (Ont.) Star, the Vancouver (B.C.) Sun and the Canadian Press. He is the fifth correspondent in the history of the OPC awards to he named winner in two categories in one year — the other being the esteemed OPC George Polk Memorial Award.
Citation For Excellence: Thomas T. Fenton, The Baltimore Sun, for his series on Paris; the peace talks and the spring crisis.