Kamila Moučková was born into the family of a communist functionary and journalist and post-war editor-in-chief of the Red Law, Vilém Nový. He also enrolled her in the Communist Party at a young age. Before that, the family had to survive the war. His father went into exile in London, where he participated in the BBC broadcast, and his mother ended up in a concentration camp. “Mrs. Kamila Moučková was mostly raised by her grandmother,” added Michal Šmíd, the administrator of the Memory of the Nation portal.
After the Second World War, Kamila Moučková graduated from the Conservatory, first performing in regional theaters and from 1948 in the Libeň Theater in Prague. However, she soon began working for Czechoslovak Radio, and from 1956 she also took part in television broadcasting. “I was interested in television as a new medium. I had the microphone mastered, and after my colleagues put me on TV, the screen eventually lured me as a new medium, “she recalled. Since its inception in 1958, it has moderated Televizní noviny. She was the first European news presenter. Her career was not disrupted by the arrest of her parents, who were convicted in the political process in the early 1950s.
Kamila Moučková herself admitted that until the Prague Spring she participated mainly in the spread of communist propaganda. “I took it more as a lecturing profession. That the content was secondary. Of course, I cannot apologize for the fact that this was the case, “said Kamila Moučková in an interview for Memory of the Nation.
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The Prague Spring period was then her professional peak. “Suddenly the censor disappeared from the television studio, so she lived through that time as the peak of her period,” said Michal Šmíd.
After the Warsaw Pact troops began occupying Czechoslovakia on the night of August 21, 1968, Kamila Moučková arrived at work and passed on information about the occupation to spectators until the transmitters were turned off – even though Soviet soldiers aimed submachine guns at it during the broadcast. Then, until August 27, she was the face of a temporary broadcast from Hloubětín.
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The following year, she had to leave the screen, soon from ČST. Then it was hard for her to look for a new job, she had to make a living by selling snacks in the theater or sticking bags. It signed Charter 77. However, the normalization regime failed to erase it from history. “After 20 years of forced oblivion, it has remained in people’s memories,” Michal Šmíd emphasized. When Kamila Moučková came out on the balcony of Melantrich, the full Wenceslas Square began to chant her name.
After the revolution, she moderated the Lens, worked at Radio Free Europe and received a number of awards. She received the highest in 2013, when President Miloš Zeman awarded her the Medal of Merit of the 1st degree. The head of state called her a symbol of the Prague Spring of 1968, and three years later she became an honorary citizen of Prague.
When Kamila Moučková celebrated her 90th birthday two years ago, she could say: “At the age of 90, I look back and I’m clean. That’s priceless, “she said. According to Michal Šmíd, her life was “such a chronicle of the 20th century, it was very colorful and dramatic”.
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The mother of three children, Kamila Moučková, was twice married, the first marriage with actor Miloš Willig lasted about a year, the second with doctor Josef Moučka for ten years. She lived with the actor Jiří Zahajský for the longest time, but she did not marry her. They stood side by side until the end of the 1980s, Zahajský and Moučková remained, although her signing of Charter 77 severely complicated his career.
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