Word: blackout
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Until the story broke through the blackout, coverage of Polish events was dominated by TIME'S Bonn bureau, which relied heavily on its network of contacts in Stockholm, Vienna and Eastern Europe to funnel in information. Bureau Chief Roland Flamini, having returned from Poland four days before the crackdown, had an advantage in evaluating the scene and the fragments of data seeping in. Flamini had visited Katowice, the mining center where many of last week's clashes occurred, talked with Polish Archbishop Jozef Glemp and shared a journey from Gdansk to Warsaw, and a cup of tea, with...
Partly because of the prevailing uncertainty and partly because of the communications blackout, public response to the crackdown seemed muted. The population was depressed and weary from the crises that had beset the country in recent months. Poles were also disillusioned by the disunity within Solidarity, traumatized by the newly imposed military rule, anxious over the lingering possibility of Soviet intervention and fearful for the fate of their national hero, Lech Walesa...
...made in the Baltic port city of Gdansk, where the ruling committee of Solidarity, including its leader, Lech Walesa, had been in stormy session. Also taken into custody were several former government officials, including former Communist Party Chief Edward Gierek. Despite the apparent size of the operation, the news blackout had been planned so carefully that even in the capital, few Poles were aware of what was happening...
Reports filtering out of the country were sketchy because of a nearly complete communications blackout. The regime halted telex and telephone communications when the crackdown began and grounded all flights to the West. Later in the week, the Associated Press, Reuters, and other Western news agencies also lost their communication links with Poland...
Hampered by sketchy information because of a near-total communications blackout, the analysts cited three key unknowns that should emerge: the scope and harshness of the crackdown on the ten-million member union; the reaction of the Catholic church and the Polish masses; and the extent, if any, of Soviet involvement in triggering the Warsaw government's move...