"Press freedom provides both the oxygen of democracy and the laughing gas of infotainment and commercial exploitation. This has been something of a shocking discovery to make for people in Central and Eastern Europe. When they were trying to imagine, and plan for, a new media order once the Communist system had been abolished, they had visions of a media scene where everyone would “speak with their own voice”, the media would be socially-Controlled and would serve as the forum of a serious, pluralistic public debate on fundamental issues of our countries. The reality is somewhat different. In this paper I will try to provide a very general overview of that reality and put it in a comparative perspective to see what progress has been achieved since 1989." (Introduction)