The formation of the information agency "Free Press Agency" and its contribution to Radio Free Europe broadcasting
Abstract
This chapter deals with a formation and activities of an exile information agency "Free Agency Press" which was founded and ran by Libuše Čeřovská and her husband in Munich in 1987-1990. The core of this agency's work was to gain current information on activities of Czechoslovak opposition and on persecution of its members.
This information was acquired from Czechoslovakia through phone conversations. These recordings of messages and statements by Czechoslovaks, both members of oppositions and ordinary people, were intended for the Czechoslovak department of Radio Free Europe.
The RFE employees had to follow a professional code which said that they cannot maintain direct connections with the people living behind ""the Iron Curtain"". Therefore in this case the communist governments could not complain, because the information was acquired thanks to a private organization, Free Agency Press, not Radio Free Europe.