Czech journalist and human rights defender Petr Uhl dies

FILE PHOTO: Petr Uhl (L) and Jan Tamas, human rights activists and opponents of the U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic, answer questions from the media in front of a banner of (back L-R) Mario Rodriguez Cobos Silo of Argentina, Mahatma Gandhi of India and Martin Luther King of the U.S., during a news conference in Prague June 2, 2008. REUTERS/David W Cerny

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Petr Uhl, a prominent Czech journalist and human rights activist jailed by former communist rulers, died on Wednesday, news agency CTK reported. He was 80.

Uhl was a lifelong leftist but never joined the Communist Party that governed Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989, and was respected by democratic activists of all political convictions.