Sessions under this theme will focus on arguably the most fundamental change in the democratic transitions in Central and Eastern European public spheres. One of the driving forces for change was to dissolve the overall system of censorship combined with a lack of state transparency, and to create an open public discourse while enhancing access to public data. Sessions will examine the encountered challenges as well as some successful efforts to enable the political communities of former dictatorships to develop the culture of freedom of speech, freedom of the press and their precondition, freedom of information.

Conveners of this theme are Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and Peter Molnar, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS), Central European University.