ABSTRACT
In the post-World War II era, the right to free expression of one’s opinions, ideas, and thoughts has become a fundamental, generally recognized human rights. The essence of censorship is political: it is the systematic control of the contents of communication by governments through the use of various means. Although limitations on free expression exist everywhere, the intensity and comprehensiveness of the censorship effort vary, often significantly, from country to country and from one regime type to another. A series of dramatic, unprecedented, and on occasion even astonishing changes have occurred in the world. These changes have affected dramatically the character of the international system, particularly as it relates to the long-term East-West dispute, as well as the nature of the political order in many states, the vast majority of diem in Eastern Europe. Internationally, a series of events in the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Europe brought about the termination of the Cold War in the early 1990s.
