Pavel Žáček

Pavel Žáček


Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
In office 2008–2010
Personal details
Born	1969 (age 47–48)
Education	M.A. Mass Communication (1992) PhD Mass Communication (2001)
Alma mater	Charles University

Pavel Žáček (born 1969 in Prague) is a Czech academic and government official. He was the first Director (2008–2010) of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Czech government agency and research institute tasked with investigation of the crimes of the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia that was declared to be criminal in 1993. He holds an M.A. (1992) and a Ph.D. (2001) in Mass Communication from Charles University of Prague. He worked for the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism from 1993, where he was appointed Deputy Director in 1998. From 1999 to 2006, he was Senior Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

He was a member of the Czech Television Council 2001–2003. He is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism. In 2010, he was succeeded as Director by Jiří Pernes. He served as adviser to Daniel Herman who was elected director of the Institute in August 2010. After a disputed Herman's removal in April 2013, Pavel Žáček was fired by the new director Pavla Foglová.