A Reporter Vanishes

When William Oatis, 37, went to Prague last June to head the Associated Press bureau, he knew he was in a hot spot. Two of his predecessors had been expelled in 18 months for "unobjective reporting," i.e., giving the news. Oatis, a mild-mannered man who seemed unlikely to offend anyone, stuck close to official handouts in writing government news. His five Czech assistants helped him service A.P.'s file to the official Czech news agency. Although he ran into the routine snags, it seemed likely he would have no real trouble.

Then, a month ago, ominous things began to happen at his bureau. One morning at dawn, A.P.'s young Czech translator, Tomas Svoboda, was whisked away in a police raid on his home. Shortly, two other Czech employees vanished. Last week on Sunday, worried Correspondent Oatis himself hurried into the U.S. embassy to report to the clerk on duty that he was being shadowed by Czech secret police 24 hours a day. Oatis said he would return next day. He did not return.

Three days later, the A.P. bureau in Frankfurt, Germany (a relay point for Prague's wires) suddenly noticed that Oatis wasn't answering queries. At A.P.'s request, Ambassador Ellis Briggs served on the Czech Foreign Minister a demand for information about Reporter Oatis. Next day, the Czechs replied: Oatis was under arrest for "activities hostile to the state," for trying to get "certain secret reports" and putting out "illegal press materials insulting the Czechoslovak republic." At midnight, while putting his car in the garage, he had been seized by three plainclothesmen who stepped out of the shadows. Simultaneously, a fourth employee vanished, leaving only a girl clerk of Oatis' original staff of five.

The case had all the earmarks of such other Communist frame-ups as that of Robert Vogeler, although nobody could figure out why Bill Oatis had been made the victim. Like A.P.'s ex-Chiefs Richard Kasischke and Nathan Polowetzky, four other foreign reporters who had displeased the Czechs had been kicked out.But newsmen feared that the Czechs were preparing to bring Bill Oatis to trial, confront him with well-coached testimony by A.P.'s missing Czech employees.

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