Archiv Syndikátu novinářů, Praha

The archive, founded by the predecessor of the Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic, is an extremely valuable collection of documents resulting from the activities of individual journalistic clubs, associations and organizations. The membership records include the files of members of journalistic organizations who were of Jewish origin or who were later persecuted for being Jewish. The fonds also includes the small estates of several journalists of Jewish origin: František Bauer (7 September 1897, Turnov - 1 October 1967, Prague), Oskar Butter (25 January 1886, Rohozec u Podbořany - 17 January 1943, Auschwitz) and Alfred Fuchs (23 June 1892, Prague - 16 February 1941, Dachau). The first Czech journalistic association (the Society of Czech Journalists) was founded on 18 November 1877. At the turn of 1938-1939, restrictions on public life and the efforts to control it led to the government's pressure to establish a unified journalistic organization - the National Union of Journalists (9 June 1939). After the end of the Second World War, the prevailing opinion was that the press must not divide and polarize society by stirring up controversy according to the interests of individual publishers but must serve the development of the "people's democratic" Czechoslovakia. Steps were taken to establish a professional organization of journalists under the name of the Union of Czechoslovak Journalists. The law made membership in the Union compulsory for all editors. In 1972, the Czechoslovak Union of Journalists was established as a unified national professional organization. The Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic became the successor organization after 1989.