Bill no. 50/1945 
 
DECREE 
of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic 
 
Date: 11 August 1945 
 
on the provisions in the field of film 
 
To technically secure and preserve all resources and equipment for the production, expansion, and public projection of  illumination-based cinematographic films and to let them be fully utilised to the benefit of the people and state, 
 
to duly secure, maintain, and then equally and systematically develop employment in the field of production, expansion, and public projection of such films, 
 
to permanently rid this cultural and economic labour of all disruptive foreign and all detrimentally unqualified and, with respect to the interest of the people and state, unreliable factors and stakeholders, 
 
and to allow for proper preparations and an early execution of a permanent revision in the field of production, expansion, and public projection of illumination-based cinematographic films in accordance with the needs of the people and state, 
 
To the motion of the government and following an agreement with the Slovak National Council, I do hereby decree: 
 
§1 
 
The exclusive authorisation to operate film studios, produce illumination-based cinematographic films (to be referred to as films), conduct film laboratory processing, rent films, as well as to project them publicly, appertains to the state. 
The state is also exclusively authorised to import and export films within the whole Czechoslovak Republic. 
The organisation and administration of the business mentioned in subsections 1 and 2 are to be regulated by a government order, whilst the operation of the public projection in the Czech and Moravian-Silesian lands would ordinarily be entrusted to national committees. 
The provisions of subsection 1 do not apply to film production within the Ministry of National Defence and to amateur film. 
 
 
 
§2 
 
 
The existing operators of businesses mentioned in § 1, subsections 1 and 2, are obligated to cede all their products, operating resources, supplies of goods and other material, as well as all operating facilities including premises they own, rent or use anywhere in Czech or Moravian-Silesian lands or outside the customs area, to the Ministry of Information, where the Ministry enters into the rights and obligations of the existing operators (§ 2, subsection 3). 
All the property of businesses mentioned in §1, subsections 1 and 2, passes on the day of its submission to the possession of the state, which can transform it as a whole or in parts into legal entities it created. 
Compensation will be paid for the property taken over in accordance with subsection 1 as per directives issued by the Minister of Information in collaboration with the Ministers of Finance, Industry, Internal Market and the price regulation office. Associations and public-service corporations shall be granted compensation at the general price level. The Czechoslovak state stands surety for the liabilities of businesses taken over on the grounds of this decree up to the value of the transferred capital. 
A compensation shall not be paid for the property of persons who are to be considered unreliable to the state in accordance with the Presidential Decree of 19 May 1945, No. 5, on the invalidity of certain proprietary affairs from the time of oppression and on the national administration of the assets of Germans, Hungarians, traitors and collaborators, and some organisations and institutes or persons sentenced on the grounds of the Presidential Decree from 19 June 1945, No. 16, on the persecution of Nazi criminals, traitors, and their complices and on extraordinary citizen verdicts, provided the sentence read the forfeiture of property. In case of doubt, Ministry of Information shall decide in collaboration with Ministry of the Interior. 
 
§3 
 
The proceeds obtained from the businesses described in this decree shall be used by the minister of information mainly for the operation, construction, and further development of Czechoslovak filmmaking in all its sectors. In economic and financial matters of particular significance, the minister of information decides after an agreement with the minister of finance. 
The regulations on the general allowance from entertainment and film presentation remain unchanged. 
 
§4 
 
The minister of information is empowered to take temporary actions vital to securing the execution of this decree until regulations are issued to execute it formally. 
 
§5 
 
This decree takes effect on the day of its proclamation; it is to be executed by the minister of information in collaboration with the concerned ministers. 
 
Dr. Beneš m.p. 
Fierlinger m.p. 
Kopecký m.p. 
 
 
 
Translation: Beáta Veisová