According to statistics published by the Wiener Zeitung in 1916, seventy-eight Czech journals have been stopped during the months of April, May, and June alone.
Those newspapers which have been spared have to comply with the instructions received from Vienna. They are prohibited from commenting in any way on the official communications, or from quoting comments of neutral or enemy journals. They are not allowed to announce the Russian successes in capital letters. In December 1914 the President of the Police of Prague informed the chief editors of all Czech daily newspapers of the desire of the government that the Czech Press should show more patriotic sentiments, as the dry tone of the articles could probably be interpreted as a sign of sympathy with the enemy. They were further informed that the Official Press Bureau was prepared to supply them with patriotic articles ready to be published as though written by the editor. This proposal was rejected with indignation: the journals agreed to publish articles from the Press Bureau without comments, only if marked as such.
Slovakia fell a victim to the same treatment as Bohemia and Moravia. All Slovak politicians were reduced to impotence by the Magyars; some were imprisoned, others sent to the front. Those who escaped from both alternatives were put
