Editing Prague Spring (section)

=== Normalization and censorship ===
The Warsaw Pact invasion included attacks on media establishments, such as [[Radio Prague]] and [[Czechoslovak Television]], almost immediately after the initial tanks rolled into Prague on 21 August 1968{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}. While both the radio station and the television station managed to hold out for at least enough time for initial broadcasts of the invasion, what the Soviets did not attack by force they attacked by reenacting party censorship{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}. In reaction to the invasion, on 28 August 1968, all Czechoslovak publishers agreed to halt production of newspapers for the day to allow for a "day of reflection" for the editorial staffs.<ref>Williams, p. 147</ref> Writers and reporters agreed with Dubček to support a limited reinstitution of the censorship office, as long as the institution was to only last three months.<ref>Williams, p. 148</ref> Finally, by September 1968, the [[Czechoslovak Communist Party]] plenum was held to instate the new censorship law. In the words of the Moscow-approved resolution, "The press, radio, and television are first of all the instruments for carrying into life the policies of the Party and state."{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

While that was not yet the end of the media's self-called freedom after the Prague Spring, it was the beginning of the end. During November, the Presidium, under Husak, declared that the Czechoslovak press could not make any negative remarks about the Soviet invaders or they would risk violating the agreement they had come to at the end of August. When the weeklies ''Reporter'' and ''Politika'' responded harshly to this threat, even going so far as to not so subtly criticize the Presidium itself in ''Politika'', the government banned ''Reporter'' for a month, suspended ''Politika'' indefinitely, and prohibited any political programs from appearing on the radio or television.<ref>Williams, p. 175</ref>

The intellectuals were stuck at an impasse; they recognized the government's increasing normalization, but they were unsure whether to trust that the measures were only temporary or demand more. For example, still believing in Dubcek's promises for reform, [[Milan Kundera]] published the article "Cesky udel" (Our Czech Destiny) in ''Literarni listy'' on 19 December.<ref name="Holy, p. 119"/><ref>Williams, p. 182</ref> He wrote: "People who today are falling into depression and defeatism, commenting that there are not enough guarantees, that everything could end badly, that we might again end up in a marasmus of censorship and trials, that this or that could happen, are simply weak people, who can live only in illusions of certainty."<ref>Williams, p. 183</ref>

In March 1969, however, the new Soviet-backed Czechoslovak government instituted full censorship, effectively ending the hopes that normalization would lead back to the freedoms enjoyed during the Prague Spring. A declaration was presented to the Presidium condemning the media as co-conspirators against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in their support of Dubcek's liberalization measures. Finally, on 2 April 1969, the government adopted measures "to secure peace and order" through even stricter censorship, forcing the people of Czechoslovakia to wait until the [[Cold War (1985–1991)|thawing of Eastern Europe]] for the return of a free media.<ref>Williams, p. 202</ref>

Former students from Prague, including [[Constantine Menges]], and Czech refugees from the crisis, who were able to escape or resettle in Western Countries continued to advocate for [[human rights]], [[religious liberty]], [[freedom of speech]] and [[political asylum]] for Czech [[political prisoners]] and [[dissidents]]. Many raised concerns about the Soviet Union and [[Soviet Army]]'s continued military occupation of Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, before the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and the collapse of [[Communism]] in Moscow and Eastern Europe.