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International Organization of Journalists

Logo: Hellerick, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons3

Soviet-era press organisation

The International Organization of Journalists (IOJ, French: Organisation internationale des journalistes) was an international press workers' organization based in Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the Cold War. It was one of dozens of front organizations launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was controlled in Prague by the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, with the assistance of KGB agents.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Jun 3, 1946Founded1
  • HeadquartersLisbon1
  • Founded inCopenhagen1

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The International Organization of Journalists (IOJ, French: Organisation internationale des journalistes) was an international press workers' organization based in Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the Cold War. It was one of dozens of front organizations launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was controlled in Prague by the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, with the assistance of KGB agents. It was described by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as "an instrumentality of Soviet propaganda".2

The story

The International Organization of Journalists was formed at a congress held in Copenhagen in June 1946. At this meeting, the International Federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists of the Allied and Free Countries merged into the new organization and for a time the new organization was broadly representative of the journalists of the world. However, by 1950 the IOJ had become dominated by communists and the non-communist member organizations had withdrawn. These would re-launch the International Federation of Journalists in 1952.

A declassified Central Intelligence Agency document from 1955, described the IOJ as "an instrumentality of Soviet propaganda". In a 2009 interview with the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, the Finnish professor Kaarle Nordenstreng who was the chairman of the IOJ 1976–1990, acknowledged that they took orders from the Kremlin but maintained that their operations were far from straightforwardly following their directives.

From Wikipedia’s article on International Organization of Journalists, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Acquisitions

  1. Succeeded International Federation of Journalists1

Timeline

  1. Jun 3, 1946Founded Founded in Copenhagen1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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