Since the fall of communism, the Eastern European media system has changed beyond recognition, with countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary leading the way in professional news organizations.

Most of the media in the region are in private hands and the ownership is mostly foreign. In Poland, for example, the biggest publisher is German-owned Heinrich Bauer Publishing House, which owns more than 20 newspapers and weekly magazines.

While some observers within these countries have criticized domination from outside, others stress that foreign owners had the money to buy modern equipment, and foreign ownership helped guarantee stability and independence for the unstable and insecure media of the early 1990s.

Owen Johnson, a journalism professor at the Indiana University School of Journalism, is an expert on the Russian and Eastern-Central European media systems and has examined the situation in depth.

Last month, he took part in a conference entitled "Journalism after the U.S.S.R.: 10 years on" at Moscow State University's Journalism Faculty. On the sidelines, he spoke to The Russia Journal about the media in this part of the world.

The Russia Journal: What are the differences between the Russian media situation and that of the other post-communist countries? Is it possible to make a comparison?

Owen Johnson: One of the big differences between Russia and most of the other former communist countries is the important role that the central Russian press and television played in the past. Their influence was felt in every corner of the country; so when there is a battle over control, it is seen as an important issue of the overall political system.

Whereas, if you compare the situation with Poland where you have only one really national newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza – the rest are more on a regional basis – it's not seen as such an important major political concern.

Poland has several competing [television] channels that have relatively equal power in a strong original basis. This, I think, is an important difference.

RJ: What about press freedom?

OJ: Firstly, we need to define what is meant by "press freedom." Does press freedom mean the ability to say anything that you want in an article or in an editorial? Or does it mean the right to speak out openly on the editorial page? Does it mean fair criticism? It is difficult for a foreign observer, like myself, to know if the battle over NTV [television channel], for example, is an issue of freedom of the press or how much of it is an issue of business matters and debts. It is very difficult to say.

It is also difficult to know when people should be concerned about limitations on freedom of the press. One could say that if you look at all the Russian newspapers now, practically every possible opinion is represented. But Westerners, when they talk about freedom of the press, tend to say: "Well, can all these opinions appear in one newspaper?" In Russia, it is more likely that one newspaper will represent one opinion and another newspaper will represent another opinion.

If a television network is feeling some pressure, is it because of the opinions that have been stated there or the critical articles that have been written, or are there private individual matters? So, it is difficult to answer the question with certainty.

Most Americans would say television has to present the news and not to follow some kind of opinion. Americans would recognize that there are different ways of reporting a news story. In the case of a strike, for instance, do you report from the standpoint of the owners, strikers or from people who are using the products that are normally made by the strikers? Do they support the strikers or do they not? There are different ways to report these opinions. I think television is a most difficult issue because there has been far less competition than in other fields.

[But] how important is it when some of the more important newspapers have very small circulations? What is the circulation of Izvestia or Nezavisimaya Gazeta? They are much lower than one would expect considering the newspapers' influence. People in Moscow tend to talk about those papers because they are here. ... But people out in the other cities?

Russian media observers say that people don't buy newspapers because journalists are not able to satisfy their needs. Dmitry Murzin, the editor of [daily] Vremya MN, complained to journalism professors that he is having big trouble finding professional journalists to work with his paper. He said that after the fall of the Soviet Union in Russia the number of newspapers has increased, but not the number of professional journalists.

RJ: What is going on, from a professional point of view, in other post-communist countries? Do they have the same problems that Russia has?

OJ: Part of the debate is: Do you have to have a journalism education or a university education in order to be a professional?

Walter Lippman, one of the most famous American journalists of the 20th century, participated in an experiment. He went to Harvard University – where they don't teach journalism – and then after he graduated he started writing for a magazine called the New Republic.

Eventually, he was editor for the New York Herald Tribune; he was a columnist for many, many years. He had no journalism education and he said you don't need that. What you need are some signs from the public about what a journalist should be.

And, to a certain degree, many Russians still think that journalists should have opinions. And as long as many people in the public think that, somebody wanting to be a journalist is also going to come in with the expectation "here I have my right to state my own opinions whenever I want. I don't have to worry about collecting all the facts. I don't need to worry about balance in the issues, because that's not what the people want."

If you have editors who say: "We are going to run a professional newspaper, and if you are going to work for me you need to learn to collect facts, you need to learn to collect information," then you won't have problems with lack of professionalism. People will come to that newspaper expecting to work in a professional way.

I think, probably, in East-Central Europe, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia there is some greater professionalism. But that's because the ... newspapers are commercial enterprises and ... want to make a profit.

I think the editor's position is very, very important in helping to decide on who'll be hired and on what kind of news they will present.

RJ: Are there any good newspapers in Russia?

OJ: It's hard to say, because the Russian newspapers keep changing. Every time you think there is one newspaper that's going to provide reliable information, then something changes.