November 1989

When, on November 17, 1989, Television News broadcast a report on a student meeting in commemoration of Jan Opletal and their unauthorized march into the center of Prague, few people had an idea what would happen in the hours to come.

Society, in which there had been greater and greater tension due to unfulfilled promises of political and economic reforms and suppression of human rights, was no longer able to absorb the brutal repression of the demonstration.

On Saturday, the center of Prague was filled with angry citizens, and university students called for a strike, soon accompanied by actors and theater performers. They called upon the nation to support the students' request and take part in a general strike planned for November 27. There were reports that one student had died after the police intervened. But Czechoslovak Television remained silent. In the evening, foreign radio stations broadcast news on the death of student Martin Šmíd. Czechoslovak Television denied the news in its Sunday Television News program, and broadcast interviews with two students with the same name on the topic. One was shown in black and white and his narration of the police actions had obviously been interrupted. Later, in the Current Affairs program, the Prime Minister of the Czech Government, František Pitra, delivered a calming speech.

On November 20, events picked up speed. A newly established Civic Forum went to work, and students and Prague citizens began to gather around the statue of St. Wenceslas.

The Rudé Právo daily paper officially stood behind the Communist Party government, defended the suppression of the demonstration, and rebuffed protests. The official line was also maintained in the news by radio and television.

The public did not know about the battle that had begun to be waged at Czechoslovak Television. On Monday, the staff had composed a protest petition against the violence on Národní třída, which they sent to the Federal Assembly, the Czech National Council and the Presidium of the Czechoslovak Government.

On Tuesday, the employees of Czechoslovak Television gathered in the garage area for broadcast trucks, where they called for objective news reporting, the withdrawal of certain editors from the screen, and live broadcasting of the demonstration on Wenceslas Square. They vigorously rejected the attempt of the chairman of the company-wide Communist Party organization to become the leader of the protest movement. A petition was drafted and handed over the management of Czechoslovak Television (CST), to be announced during Czechoslovak Television News. However, the management considered the petition to be an antisocialist pamphlet and refused to broadcast it. In the evening, viewers again saw biased news, followed by the Secretary General of the Central Board of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC), Milouš Jakeš, in the Currently on Stage program.

The protest petition was eventually broadcast in Czechoslovak Television News. However, the method of its broadcast again led the staff to fill the broadcast truck garages, where they protested against the continuing subjective and biased news reporting, and threatened again to participate in the general strike. The CST management feared this and acceded to the request for a live broadcast from the demonstration on Wenceslas Square. During the Studio Contact afternoon program, six live reports were shown. After one of the interviewed citizens praised the year 1968, the following four reports, already censored, were broadcast from a recording. The pro-Communist members of the management staff of Czechoslovak Television were afraid that due to the live broadcast, undesired information might come from the screen.

This increased control by the hard-core communists again left no news program intact. Citizens outside Prague were not told the truth in Czechoslovak Television News once again.

On Wednesday, however, Prague citizens came to Kavčí hory to support the CST staff in their efforts. But the Czechoslovak Television management sought support elsewhere - during Wednesday night and the early morning of Thursday, November 23, the premises of Kavčí hory were occupied by a fast-reacting regiment of the National Security Corps. However, after very sharp and fierce protests by the CST staff, the regiment was withdrawn during the day. Nonetheless, the protesting employees were in extreme danger from the National Security Corps, the military and the People's Militia, who had already based themselves in certain areas and rooms of Kavčí hory.
Under the pressure of the protesting staff, Czechoslovak Television News gave a more balanced report on the situation on Thursday. Viewers had the chance to watch, for example, the employees of ČKD booing at the leading Secretary of the Prague Communist Party organization, Miroslav Štěpán.

On Friday, November 24, the protesting staff won another great victory. After the Television News, where the resignation of Jakeš was announced, Channel One showed amateur student films of Národní třída. However, since the situation at Kavčí hory was unsafe, those who prepared the broadcast had to keep everything secret. There was a danger that the State Security agents would hinder the broadcasting of these materials, whether on the premises of Czechoslovak Television or from the transmitters.

On Saturday, November 25, the CST Strike Committee was established, which refused emphatically to negotiate with the leaders of the company-wide Communist organization, which until that time had had significant influence within the institution. Under the pressure of the Strike Committee, the management agreed to broadcast a live meeting of the Civic Forum at Letná plain. The reports from Letná were shown alternately with reports from a Communist meeting in the Culture Palace of Prague.
In the afternoon a mass was broadcast from the St. Vitus Cathedral, conducted by Cardinal František Tomášek. In the evening, the new leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia appeared on the screen, as well as, for the first time, Václav Havel.
On Sunday, another broadcast aired from Letná. The news was now objective and balanced. CST thus caught up with the events in society.

On Monday, November 27, a Civic Forum unit was established at CST, and the staff then marched in support of the ongoing general strike. On the same day, the government recalled the Managing Director, Libor Batrla. Miroslav Pavel, the government spokesman until that time, became the new director of Czechoslovak Television. A documentary was broadcast on the events of 17 November, and Václav Havel presented a program at the Civic Forum.

On Tuesday, November 28, live reports were broadcast from the extraordinary convention of the CPC, and the next day a five-hour broadcast was aired from the Federal Assembly, where the deputies passed the deletion of the article on the leading role of the Party from the Constitution. Celebrities banned until then started to appear in television programs.

On November 30, the new Managing Director of CST announced to the staff gathered in the communication garages that Czechoslovak television was no longer an ideological instrument of a single political party.

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