Ion Vianu, born in 1934, is a Romanian psychiatrist and writer, who in 1977 stood up for writer Paul Goma´s initiative and in result faced persecution from the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.  Paul Goma´s group expressed solidarity with Czechoslovak Charter 77 and demanded observance of human rights in Romania. Ion Vianu was dismissed from the university, interrogated and persecuted by the Securitate secret service and finally expelled from Romania. He then lived in Switzerland and, also in cooperation with Radio Free Europe, provided documentary evidence of the communist regime´s abuse of psychiatry to eliminate political opponents.

Present at the event in the Ambassador´s residence were members of the Czech community in Bucharest, including Czech students and pupils who presented   the medal, Romanian students of Czech language, Romanian fighters for freedom and democracy from the period before 1989, including Dinu Zamfirescu, president of the scientific council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile.  The participants also viewed a documentary film Loss of Faith directed by Olga Sommerová.

Earlier that day, Doctor Vianu together with Ambassador Šitler laid down flowers at the commemorative plaque dedicated to Václav Havel and all fighters for freedom and democracy in the Linden tree alley in the Izvor Park.