Prague Embassy cable, Czechoslovak Press Coverage of Demonstration and List Agenda of Demands

In communist state, a newspaper article sometimes told the reader more than just what happened yesterday. Because the party maintained strict control over what could be printed or broadcast, the way the news was reported could signal political changes as well. One such instance appears in this November 20 cable from the American Embassy in Prague, which compared local coverage of the November 17 demonstration across three newspapers: Rude pravo, the Communist Party's central mouthpiece; Svobodne slovo, run by the Czechoslovak Social Democrats (an officially-sanctioned non-communist party); and Mlada fronta, the organ of the Union of Socialist Youth. Two very different interpretations emerged. Rude pravo followed the official line and portrayed the police intervention as justified and appropriate. But Svobodne slovo and Mlada fronta broke ranks and critically reported the police assault on demonstrators. These conflicting accounts represented much more than a disagreement about the facts. People immediately understood this was a major breach in the party's monopoly on information. These conflicting reports in Svobodne slovo and Mlada fronta marked journalists' first moves towards a 'free' press. They also indicated dissension in the ruling camp, as the Social Democrats and the Union of Socialist Youth distanced themselves from the Communist party's conservative leadership.