As institutions consolidate, without the accompanying speech guarantees of the judicial system, the journalists of East Europe and the former Soviet Union find their freedoms circumscribed in ways they had not anticipated and for which they were ill prepared. This chapter focuses on countries where the dilemmas of pluralization and economic and political change pose interesting questions for the attainment and maintenance of journalistic freedoms. Most of the examples, therefore, are drawn from Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, and the former East Germany. The legacy of the Communist era was not precisely the same for all of these countries, but all were subject in Soviet times to the same basic set of rules, and the survival of some of these patterns into the contemporary period is very much part of the space in which freedom of the press can be exercised. That means that scenarios for the transition dynamic requiring substantial state funding are unavailable.
Demands are diffuse, ownership is highly pluralized, the market guides decisions.
In Central and East Europe, movement toward this model depends quite heavily on foreign investment, with consequent tensions. The unknown, but extremely important vector that moves the media system from high to low diffuseness of demands on media content and personnel is essential for a democratic media system in the post-Soviet period. This movement could result from a strengthened legal system and increased regulatory capacity, or fissures in the oligopoly leading to diffuse demands, or expansion of wealth and investment, which, especially with currently available or projected technological advances results in expansion of the sector more generally. The latter two results could provide for significant press pluralism and autonomy even before legal reforms had been implemented, though the gains would remain fragile.