Archiv Syndikátu novinářů, Praha

The first Czech journalistic association (the Society of Czech Journalists) was founded on 18 November 1877. At the turn of 1938-1939, restrictions on public life and the efforts to control it led to the government's pressure to establish a unified journalistic organization - the National Union of Journalists (9 June 1939). After the end of the Second World War, the prevailing opinion was that the press must not divide and polarize society by stirring up controversy according to the interests of individual publishers but must serve the development of the "people's democratic" Czechoslovakia. Steps were taken to establish a professional organization of journalists under the name of the Union of Czechoslovak Journalists. The law made membership in the Union compulsory for all editors. In 1972, the Czechoslovak Union of Journalists was established as a unified national professional organization. The Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic became the successor organization after 1989.

Efforts to maintain the records of journalistic associations and organizations can be traced back to the late 19th century. Most journalistic organizations tried to systematically store their records. In 1955, a collection campaign was held with the aim of gathering as many documents as possible from the activities of journalistic associations in the archives of the Union of Czechoslovak Journalists. Since 1956, the archive has been maintained in the library of the Institute of Journalistic Studies. In 1967, the Journalism Study Institute was attached to the Faculty of Education and Journalism of Charles University and the archive was handed over to the administration of the Union of Czech Journalists. After 1989, the archive came under the administration of the Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic, which handed it over to the National Archives in 1999.