Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Soviet Union began state control over mass communications across Eastern and central European capitals in 1945 following World War II. This occupation marked the start of communist parties taking direct control of state media, censorship organs, and propaganda departments.
Gosteleradio controlled radio and television broadcasting while Goskomizdat censored all printed matter within the region. Party bureaucrats held all leading editorial positions within these media organizations to ensure strict adherence to state directives.
Several people including Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Yuri Shikhanovich, Pyotr Yakir, Victor Krasin, Sergei Kovalev, Alexander Lavut, and Tatyana Velikanova were arrested in connection with the Chronicle of Current Events bulletin. This publication contained anonymously written pieces dedicated to defending human rights in the USSR during the Stalinist period.
Voice of America began broadcasting in Russian in 1947 to counter Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies. Radio Free Europe obtained a transmitter base at Lampertheim, West Germany in January 1950 and completed its first broadcast aimed specifically at Czechoslovakia on July 4 of that same year.
Imre Nagy, former Prime Minister of Hungary who supported withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact during the 1956 revolution, was secretly tried and executed by hanging in June 1958. His trial and execution remained public only after the sentence was carried out.