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Heretical Clippings. The fruits of such journalism were quickly apparent. Circulation doubled and tripled. Czechs waited in line at newsstands, tuned in excitedly to newscasts on Czech radio and television. To the Kremlin, however, it was all an insufferable threat. In May, Dubček was summoned to Moscow, where Leonid Brezhnev thrust a stack of heretical clippings at him and, shaking with rage, told him that "this sort of thing has got to stop." But it did not stop. Dubček refused to restore censorship, contented himself with asking newsmen to tone down their attacks for a while. At a national conference of journalists in Prague, the newsmen announced that they could be silenced only by force. "I am not interested in the pronouncements of those who cannot stomach freedom of the press," proclaimed Literárni Listy Editor Antonin Liehm. "The alternatives are simple. Either they will win, in which case more than just freedom of the press will disappear from this country's life, or they will lose."
Since the Russian invasion, the Czech press has carried its battle for freedom to extraordinary lengths. Many top newsmen, fearing for their lives, have fled to the West, but others have carried on. After Russian troops marched in to close them down, most Czech papers published underground editions. Television newscasters managed to broadcast from studios over portable army transmitters, and C.T.K., the government news agency, opened a clandestine telex service. Editors sneaked past Russian surveillance to confer with Dubček's cooperative aides, promised to try to appease the Russians by imposing self-censorship.
Temporary Control. The censorship so far has been light. Journalists no longer write direct attacks against the Russians, no longer refer to Russian soldiers as "occupying troops," but their stories are anything but friendly. Rude Pravo reported with oblique subtlety that any agreements Dubček made in Moscow had been dictated by "unimaginably abnormal circumstances," conducted a quick public-opinion poll that showed that Dubček and his reforms had overwhelming popular support.
The press may not be able to hold out much longer. At Russian insistence, three important magazines—Literárni Listy, Reportér and the intellectual weekly Student—have already been banned. The Czech National Assembly last week was called into session to pass a "temporary" press-control bill that re-establishes censorship. As if to prepare for the event, Russian troops moved out of Czech newspaper offices and permitted journalists to return to their desks—where their activities will be easier to observe and control.