Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Difference between revisions

Following the [[Velvet Revolution#Friday, November 17, 1989|November 17 demonstrations]] in 1989 and brutal crackdown by Czechoslovak riot police, {{Not translated|Drahomíra Dražská|lt=|cs|Drahomíra Dražská|WD=}}, a porter at a dormitory in Prague, reported that a student, [[Martin Šmíd]], had been killed during the clashes.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kenety|first=Brian|date=16 November 2019|title=1989: the Velvet Revolution in context (or how 'November' began in 'January')|url=https://english.radio.cz/1989-velvet-revolution-context-or-how-november-began-january-8115387|access-date=7 December 2020|publisher=[[Radio Prague]]}}</ref> The [[Charter 77]] activist [[Petr Uhl]] believed this account and passed it along to major news organizations, who broadcast it.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sebestyen|first=Victor|title=Revolution 1989: The Fall Of The Soviet Empire|publisher=[[Orion Publishing Group]]|year=2009|isbn=9780297857884|pages=370–371|author-link=Victor Sebestyen}}</ref> After Reuters and the [[Voice of America]] (VOA) reported the story, RFE/RL decided to run it too.<ref>{{cite web|date=16 November 2009|title=Unraveling the Šmid death story|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/off_mic_smid_death_story/1879520.html|access-date=7 December 2020|website=RFE/RL}}</ref> However, the report later turned out to be false. The story is credited by many sources with inspiring Czechoslovak citizens to join the subsequent (larger) demonstrations which eventually brought down the communist government.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nelson|first=Michael|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45731476|title=War of the black heavens : the battles of Western broadcasting in the Cold War|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|year=1997|isbn=0-585-29377-5|edition=1st|location=Syracuse, N.Y.|pages=184–186|oclc=45731476}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Šiška|first=Miroslav|date=18 November 2018|title=Mrtvý Šmíd z Národní třídy. Stěžejní událost, která se nestala|trans-title=Dead Šmíd from Národní třída. A major event that did not happen|url=https://www.novinky.cz/historie/17-listopad/clanek/mrtvy-smid-z-narodni-tridy-stezejni-udalost-ktera-se-nestala-40256470|access-date=7 December 2020|website=[[Novinky.cz]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Ash|first=Timothy Garton|date=5 November 2009|title=1989!|work=[[The New York Review of Books]]|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/11/05/1989/|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|access-date=7 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115092357/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/11/05/1989/|archive-date=15 January 2016|issn=0028-7504}}</ref>