Hard-Pressed: A quarter-century of Central and Eastern Europe's media under the pressures of autocracy, corruption, and capitalism. (Transitions Online Series Book 6)

The fall of communism brought with it expectations of an unfettered press safeguarding the young democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. But for the region's media, the past quarter-century has turned out to be much less uplifting. From oligarch-controlled television stations to politically partisan newspapers, from woeful ethical standards to outright corruption, the media often fall far short of acting as independent watchdogs over their societies, despite the existence of some scrappy publications and feisty reporters willing to uncover official wrongdoing and expose poor governance. If that weren't enough, the region's press has been hit hard by the same trends transforming the media around the world, including an explosion of alternative forms of entertainment, the growth of social media,
decreased advertising revenues associated with the rise of the Internet, and
general economic malaise. Hard-Pressed: A Quarter-Century of Eastern Europe's Media Under the Pressures of Autocracy, Corruption, and Capitalism is a compilation of articles from TOL and Transitions, our print predecessor, tracing this halting transition over the past 20 years.