Cleansing among Czech Journalists after World War II and a Comparison with the Situation in France and the Netherlands

Abstract

After the end of World War II Czechoslovakia was faced with the task of punishing its Nazi collaborators. Besides sentencing traitors by the special people’s courts, Czech journalists themselves also started the cleansing among their own ranks. The cleansing committee of the Czech Journalists’ Union investigated some 400 journalists and imposed some sort of penalties on more than 200 people. The article also presents a brief a comparison with the situation in France and the Netherlands. The cleansing among Czech journalists was very rigorous, even in comparison to other European countries. In contrast to Western countries, and due to the subsequent political developments, the journalists punished were often prohibited from resuming their profession.