The assignment was to broadcast, so I broadcasted. The formation of Svobodné Studio Sever (Free Studio North)

Download image
Jiří Heřman was born on February 28, 1946 in Liberec. From his youth he was interested in transmission technology, he built the first crystals with his friends, which led him to successfully graduate from the Liberec Industrial School. After graduating in 1964, he joined the 1st Signal Regiment in Beroun, where he met the work of Czechoslovak Radio Communications. From October 1966 he worked as a technician at Ještěd, in the building of Czechoslovak Radio Communications next to the radio tower and hotel under construction. During the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops on August 21, 1968, together with his colleague Luboš Chotěborský, he stayed on the summit above Liberec to broadcast. Gradually they switched to television broadcasting via an industrial camera from the LVT (Liberec Exhibition Market) with Miroslav Hladík as the presenter. Václav Havel, Jan Tříska and Marie Tomášová also came to the temporary Free Studio North to broadcast their messages. They were not prevented from doing so by the occupation troops and were thus free to inform the citizens about the tragic events not only in Liberec during the Soviet invasion until August 27, 1968, when Czechoslovak Television began to broadcast officially. At the time of the interview in 2024, Jiří Heřman was living in Mařenice.