Censorship Without Censorship

Abstract

The study describes media censorship and propaganda at the end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. It explores the clash between repression and consensus in state-controlled media within the context of historical and media research. The research is based on archival documents from the Czechoslovakian censorship office, specifically the Federal Office for Press and Information. The historical analysis gradually outlines six critical principles of media supervision: Detailed monitoring, editor-in-chief discipline, minimum preliminary censorship, maximum self-censorship, subsequent moderate censorship, and constant propaganda updates. Together, this created a specific system of ‘censorship without censorship’, in which an authoritarian state effectively controlled the media with a minimum of direct pressure.

KEYWORDS:

• Czechoslovakia
• communism
• media history
• censorship
• media management

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ash, The Magic Lantern, 78.

2 See Cipkowski, Revolution in Eastern Europe; or Saxonberg, The Fall.

3 See Corner, Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes.

4 See Siebert et al., Four Theories of the Press. For a critique, see Huxtable, “Making News Soviet.”

5 See Bastiansen, “Media History and the Study Of Media Systems”; Berry et al., Last Rights. Revisiting Four Theories of the Press; Busch, “Comrades at War.”

6 See Sabrow, “Consent in the Communist GDR”; Linderberger, “Tacit Minimal Consensus”; Yurchak, Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More; Blaive, Perceptions of Society in Communist Europe; Hejlová, and Klimeš, “Propaganda in Czechoslovakia in 1980s.”

7 See McNair, Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Media.

8 Ibid.

9 Parliament of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Act 84/1968. https://www.psp.cz/sqw/sbirka.sqw?cz=84&r=1968.

10 Czechoslovak Communist Party, Lessons from the crisis development in the party and society after XIII. Congress of the Communist Party.

11 See Klimeš, Doporucˇeno nezverˇejnˇovat.

12 Press conference of May 13, 1986, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

13 Ibid.

14 Press conference of June 10, 1986, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Record of the press conference on April 16, 1986, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

20 Press conference of November 29, 1989, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

21 Notice of January 23, 1984, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

22 Defect in the media of September 21, 1981, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

23 Record of proceedings May 22, 1986, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 68, National Archive, Prague.

24 Press conference of November 29, 1989, Federal Office of Press and Information, file 30, National Archive, Prague.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Klimeš

David Klimeš, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University in Prague, Smetanovo nabrezi 6, Prague 1, 11000, Czech Republic; E-mail [email protected]