International Organization of Journalists

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".

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 However, by 1950 the IOJ had become dominated by communists and the non-communist member organizations had withdrawn.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.

The decision-making body of the IOJ was Congress, which met every four years. Members of the IOJ, and delegations representing groups that had less than 20 members, had a voice, but no vote in the deliberation. Congress elected the Executive Committee, whose members could be nominated either by member federations or by the Congress itself. The Executive Committee met once a year. The IOJ Bureau was also elected by the Congress and consisted of the President, Secretary-General and a number of Vice-Presidents and met as required. Members of the Bureau were ex-officio members of the Executive Committee. The General Secretariat handled day-to-day administration of the IOJ and was headed by the General Secretary under the direction of the Bureau. Originally headquartered in London, in June 1947, the IOJ moved to Opletalova 5, Prague II, and in 1966, to Vinohradska 3, Prague 1, and by 1978, to Parizska 9, 11001 Prague 1.

The IOJ held the following Congresses:

In October 1955 the International Organization of Journalists claimed to have 60,000 members in 51 countries: "national organizations" in 14 countries - Albania, Bulgaria, People's Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union and North Vietnam; "national groups" in Mexico and Ceylon. It apparently had individual members in 33 further countries.

In 1957, representatives of the French Journalists Union (an affiliated of the CGT), the Association of Polish Journalists, the All-China Journalists Association were mentioned as officers of the IOJ.

In 1970 it declared that it had 150,000 members.