Editing Prague Spring (section)

===Media reactions===
[[File:Main protagonists of Prague spring in 1968.jpg|thumb|Main instigators of Prague Spring in 1968 (L–R) Oldřich Černík, Alexander Dubček, Ludvík Svoboda and Josef Smrkovský]]
Freedom of the press opened the door for the first look at Czechoslovakia's past by Czechoslovakia's people{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}. Many of the investigations centered on the country's history under communism, especially in the instance of the [[Joseph Stalin|Stalinist]]-period.<ref name="Williams, p. 68"/> In another television appearance, Goldstücker presented both doctored and undoctored photographs of former communist leaders who had been purged, imprisoned, or executed and thus erased from communist history.<ref name="Bren, p. 23"/> The Writers' Union also formed a committee in April 1968, headed by the poet [[Jaroslav Seifert]], to investigate the persecution of writers after the [[Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948|Communist takeover in February 1948]] and rehabilitate the literary figures into the Union, bookstores and libraries, and the literary world.<ref>Golan, Galia. ''Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies. Reform Rule in Czechoslovakia: The Dubček Era, 1968–1969''. Vol. 11. Cambridge, UK: CUP Archive, 1973, p. 10</ref><ref name="Holy, p. 119">Holy, p. 119</ref> Discussions on the current state of communism and abstract ideas such as freedom and identity were also becoming more common; soon, non-party publications began appearing, such as the trade union daily ''Práce'' (Labour). This was also helped by the Journalists' Union, which by March 1968 had already persuaded the Central Publication Board, the government censor, to allow editors to receive uncensored subscriptions to foreign papers, allowing for a more international dialogue around the news.<ref>Golan, p. 112</ref>

The press, the radio, and the television also contributed to these discussions by hosting meetings where students and young workers could ask questions of writers such as Goldstücker, [[Pavel Kohout]], and [[Jan Procházka (writer)|Jan Procházka]] and political victims such as [[Josef Smrkovský]], Zdeněk Hejzlar, and [[Gustáv Husák]].<ref name="Williams, p. 69"/> Television also broadcast meetings between former political prisoners and the communist leaders from the secret police or prisons where they were held.<ref name="Bren, p. 23"/> Most importantly, this new self-called freedom and the introduction of television into the lives of everyday Czechoslovak citizens moved the political dialogue from the intellectual to the popular sphere.