Julius Fucik. Photo: Internet
The history of universal journalism recognizes those who left indelible traces in the professionals who practice the exercise of communication. Julius Fučík is one of those men. Progressive organizations of the world instituted September 8, the date of Fučik's execution, as International Journalist's Day, in honor of that Czech reporter, who proved to be an excellent professional, good communist and great person.
As leader of the anti-fascist resistance and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was dedicated to journalism as a weapon to denounce the evils of his time, and in favor of society. During the Nazi occupation, he published with a pseudonym until he was arrested by the Gestapo (macabre Nazi secret police who shot him in 1943).
Julius Fučík, the martyr journalist, showed the courage and dignity of a great press professional committed to the interests of his people.
With his performance, Fučík won the admiration and respect of his compatriots and became an example to imitate by the journalists.
He used various means of expression to encourage patriotic resistance, even from prison, where he endured the tortures and blows, which stripped him of his teeth, and the marks that lacerated his body. He wrote a diary told on cigarette packets that anonymous hands took out of the penitentiary.
The text written by Fučík in prison was published two years after his execution, and it was a memorable work, made in the famous article "Al pie de la galca", which immortalized him. He narrates the most crude experiences of the presidio, and the history of the antifascist movement in favor of the construction of social justice and human dignity. Exposed in eight chapters, the work shocked the contemporary world and was inspirational for revolutionaries. Beyond an informative genre, it is a lesson of ethics, of combative journalism and at the same time of solidarity with all those who during the Second World War fought to overthrow fascism.
His last report, written in the most unsuspected manner, but with supreme loyalty to the office he carried out to the last breath, was translated into 80 languages, and in posthumous tribute made his author worthy of the International Peace Prize in 1950. On the other hand, the International Organization of Journalists had as its maximum distinction the Medal of Honor Julius Fučík.
Fučík's optimism, based on the defense of reason and civilization, his legacy of firmness and infinite dignity, will last forever from his stature as a journalist and a bold leader.
Present and future generations of media professionals will have among their paradigms the author of the report Al pie de la horca "At the foot of the gallows."
