East Berlin radio and television on the October 1989 demonstrations ('Black Channel'), FBIS Daily Report, 11 October 1989

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

FBIS-EEU-89-195
11 October 1989 GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 15
Western Criticism of Police at Demos Rejected
'Slanderous Accusations' Countered
LD1010204489 East Berlin Voice of GDR Domestic Service in German 1705 GMT 10 Oct 89
[Text] The number of questions being asked by concerned GDR citizens about the slanderous accusations made by the West about the use of the People's Police during the past few days are increasing. For the sake of clarity, in order to set out the facts unambiguously, the ADN news agency received the following information from the Press Department of the Interior Ministry which we will now read in its entirety:
There were disturbances of public order and security in several cities in the GDR. The People's Police repeatedly asked the illegal riotous assemblies to disperse. When all these admonishments for avoidance of violence and for restraint produced no results, the use of the forces of law and order to restore peace and order was unavoidable. It is true, however, that hooligans, frenzied troublemakers and criminal elements shouted anti-state slogans and violently attacked members of the People's Police who were there to maintain order. They threw stones, bottles and incendiary devices and brutally and recklessly hit out at the forces of order with steel bars and other dangerous objects. It was no mere coincidence that many of the hooligans were wearing protective helmets; one must conclude that these were deliberate planned actions. In fact the People's Police acted with great restraint and only advanced against the troublemakers with police assistance after it had been attacked. It did not, as the Western media claim, strike blindly and recklessly at citizens who were not involved. It is also a fact that 106 members of the People's Police were injured, some of them seriously, while 46 hooligans were hurt.
Allegations of fatalities by the Western media are complete fabrications. It has been proven that Western correspondents not only made slanderous accusations against the People's Police, but were also among the organizers and instigators. It cannot be put down to coincidence that they were always on the scene just when hooligans gathered in riotous assemblies. These reporters gave the rabble-rousers support and specific directions on what to do. They themselves disturbed law and order. It was because of this massive interference that their freedom to work had to be restricted. Whatever the Western media may say against the German People's Police in the way of slander of the most odious kind, it will not prevent the latter from always steadfastly fulfilling the duty of protecting the citizens and serving the socialist state.
'Brainless Rabble-Rousers' Hit
LD1110104389 East Berlin Television Service in German 1725 GMT 10 Oct 89
[Commentary by Karl-Eduard Von Schnitzler in the "Black Channel" program--recorded]
[Text] Currently some 2,400 refugees are at the site of the embassy [of the FRG in the CSSR] including 600 children. [children shouting] Children and an empty pe[r]ambulator. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The child from the empty perambulator standing at the Bonn embassy's fence in Prague is by no means in the so-called free West. Together with [h]undreds of other children it is inside Prague children's homes, left behind by its parents who are sending jolly postcards from Pa[illegible]au or Giessen to their relatives left behind and who do not even care about their children. Those faithful 17 million citizens of the GDR were concurrently celebrating their state's 40th anniversary. Even though those Western newspapers and government wiseacres spoke of the GDR being isolated, the GDR in fact burst with guests and festive functions. But those living beyond the Elbe and Werra rivers would have loved to see some of the guests staying away ostentatiously.
[...]

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

The page is FBIS's English translation of two German-language East Berlin broadcasts (Voice of GDR radio and East Berlin Television). Printed as translated by FBIS, including its apparent slips ('are increasing', 'then he arrived').

Letters blotted on the scan are read as the evident word (perambulator, hundreds, over); the city name after 'Pa' is [illegible] (evidently Passau). Bracketed glosses are FBIS's. '[...]' marks paragraphs omitted here for the 4,000-character limit; they are visible in the image.