Freedom of the Press in Postcommunist Poland
Freedom of the Press in Postcommunist Poland

Summary/Abstract: The abolition of censorship in April 1990 was one of the most significant symbols of Poland's transition from communism to democracy. But six years after this momentous break with the repressive past, can one say that Poland has in place a genuine, Western-style "freedom of the press"? The question is somewhat misleading. There is, of course, no one single model of the "freedom of the press" in Western democracies that provides a yardstick by which to assess the level to which this ideal is being realized in postcommunist countries, such as Poland. What in the United States would be considered intolerable violations of the freedom· of the press under the currently dominant U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment to the Constitutionfor example, a judicially enforceable right of reply, bans on publication of names of rape victims in newspaper articles, and the prohibition of racist hate speech-are seen as perfectly reasonable restrictions in a number of West European democracies, for which their proponents make no apologies. [...]

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