ABSTRACT
All forms of external control over the media and those internally generated within media organizations were aimed at maximizing the role of the media in popularizing the ruling ideology and state policy. Economic restructuring and political democratization, two central issues in East-Central Europe, are reflected in media debates. In postsocialist East-Central Europe, the revitalization of civil society is blocked because of the absence of corresponding reforms of the state. As in West Europe, different ideological actors, such as public broadcasting bodies and established cultural institutions, are opposing media commercialization and internationalization. The traditional West European public service broadcasting is the most attractive model. One of the main reasons for the low quality of East European journalism is that in many cases "the same journalists are producing the same newspapers and news programmes as two years ago". The doctrine of Western journalism fits in perfectly with the prevailing ideology of privatization in East-Central Europe, although more normatively than practically.
