- William N. Oatis
William N. Oatis (
January 4 ,1914 -September 16 ,1997 ), was an American journalist. He gained international attention when he was charged withespionage by the Czech government in 1951 and was subsequently jailed for 18 months.He started his journalism career with his high school newspaper, studied at
DePauw University for one year and then returned toMarion ,Illinois , where he worked for the Leader-Tribune. In 1937 he started working for theAssociated Press inIndianapolis ,Indiana .He served in the
U.S Army duringWorld War II , studying Japanese at theUniversity of Minnesota inMinneapolis .He was working as the AP bureau chief in
Prague ,Czechoslovakia in 1951 when he was arrested. The Czech government said Oatis was dangerous because of his insistence on obtaining only "accurate, correct, verified information." The case made international headlines, as well as leading to trade and travelembargo s against Czechoslovakia. Oatis was released in May 1953, shortly after the death ofJoseph Stalin and an angry letter from President Eisenhower to the Czech government. The Czech government said it had been moved to pardon Oatis by a poignant plea from Oatis' wife, Laurabelle. A Czech court cleared him of all charges in 1959.The
Voice of America called Oatis "the first American martyr to press freedom behind theIron Curtain ." The State Department denounced the Czech verdict as a ludicrous travesty and the U.S. press said Oatis was condemned for no more than doing his job as a reporter. The case's Orwellian overtones were highlighted by the prosecution's assertion at the show trial that Oatis, a careful reporter, was "particularly dangerous because of his discretion and insistence on obtaining only accurate, correct, verified information."Oatis, who went on to cover the United Nations for three decades, retired in 1984 after a 47-year career at the AP. In addition to Prague, Oatis, a native of Marion, Ind., worked for AP in Indianapolis, New York, London and Sofia.
In 1992 William N. Oatis was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.
Oatis died in September, 1997 at Long Island College Hospital after a long illness, according to his son Jonathan. He was survived by wife Laurabelle and sons Jonathan and Jeremy.
External links
* [http://www.oatis.com/memorial/obit.html Associated Press Obituary ]
* [http://www.ap.org/pages/about/history/history_third.html Mention on Associated Press history page]
* [http://www.oatis.com/memorial/memorial.html William N. Oatis Memorial]
* [http://www.depauw.edu/library/archives/ijhof/inductees/MembersList.pdf Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.