Word: czech
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...week ago, the newspaper reporters of the United States made a pilgrimage to Idlewild airport to welcome William N. Oatis, the A. P. correspondent who had been imprisoned by the Czech Communists. But to those who wanted Oatis to recall forced confessions and false charges, the interview was disappointing. Oatis admitted no torture and did not even infer that his arrest was unwarrented. When asked whether he was gathering information for the United States government in defiance of Czech law, he replied, "I am not going into that...
...journalists, robbed of any honest sensationalism, fabricated a little of their own under headlines twisted to an "Oatis refuses to admit torture" type. The reporters forgot that Oatis admitted violating a Czech law and had long portrayed him as another Mindzenty. For so many months the press had assumed Oatis' innocence that when the facts did not justify their speculation, they were unable to reverse themselves. Of course, the American public relishes reports of Communist cruelty and injustice. But in this case, by lording sensation over truth, the free press has sacrificed its principles...
Oatis justifiably has been the special hero of the press. But this bias has been extended even to the news columns of papers with large circulations and enviable reputations for accuracy. Though the Czech law is an abridgement of freedom of the press, each newspaper has the right to say so only in its editorial columns. For it is also an abridgement of the standards of the press to twist a valid case under a given law into an injustice. The newspapers can protest the Czech law but they have an obligation to the people that these protests be labelled...
...East German military buildup, and was East Germany's liaison man to the Cominform. Only two German Communists were bigger: Party General Secretary Walter Ulbricht, who toppled him, and Security Boss Wilhelm Zaisser, who arrested him. His crimes: "Political blindness." He was also charged with having supported Czech Communist Leader Rudolf Slansky, executed as a traitor last year. Warned the official announcement: "The investigation is not over yet." The hyena was still hungry...
...prison two years on a spying charge. They left two oddly matched articles-a pair of Argyle socks knitted by his wife, and his passport. The Embassy was acting on the suspicion that Oatis might need both for traveling. Fourteen hours later he did. Oatis was taken before a Czech Communist official and told that he had been freed. He was no more astounded than everyone else. The U.S. had apparently been making little progress in negotiations for his release, and only two weeks ago the Czechs announced that a new amnesty order for Czech prisoners did not apply...