Noël Bernard (journalist)

Noel Bernard (born 'Noel Bercovici'; 25 February 1925 – 23 December 1981) was a Romanian journalist, known for being the head of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe (RFE). His mysterious death is believed by some to have been caused by Communist Romania's secret police, the Securitate, which is known to have previously sought his neutralisation.

Born in Bucharest, to a Jewish father and a German Evangelical mother, Noel Bernard left Romania together with his parents, and moved to pre-state Israel in 1940 during the British Mandatory period. There, he studied mathematics at Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he met his first wife, fellow student Yvette Bourla. He then moved to London, where he changed his name to Bernard and became a journalist at the BBC, working in the organisation's Romanian service.

Bernard started working as the chief of the Romanian language department of the West German-based Radio Free Europe in 1953, but he left in 1958 and moved to Rome with his wife and two children. After reporting from Rome, he and his family returned to England, where Bernard ran the London office of Radio Press International (RPI), a radio news service that was ultimately bought out by UPI. Eight years after leaving Munich, Bernard returned to serve as director of RFE's Romanian-language department until his death in 1981. In 1972, he married Ioana Măgură. A former newsreader for the Romanian Radio and Television (1964–1969), she had defected from Communist Romania in 1969, and had started working for RFE in Munich.

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