Comparative Analysis of the Press Regulation in the Territory of the Visegrad Countries in the 20th Century - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Legal Studies, 12, 2 (2023) 37–57

DOI: 10.47745/AUSLEG.2023.12.2.03

Abstract. This paper aims to examine the development of the legal framework of the freedom of the press over the course of the 20th century in the territory of the so-called Visegrad (or V4) countries, namely in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland. The analysis starts with the presentation of the press regulation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and ends with the fall of the communist regime in 1989.Our starting point is the fact that the analysed countries have undergone similar historical events, and in certain cases – for instance, in the case of Slovakia and the Czech Republic – they even shared a common history for some time. It could be inferred that the two world wars brought a serious setback in the development curve of the press regulation in all of the examined countries. Moreover, the subsequent period, which was characterized by the strict censorship of the communist regime, did not contribute to the favourable development of the press either.In the territory of the examined countries, significant changes did not come until the very end of the 20th century: due to the fall of the communist regime in 1989 and the subsequent establishment of new democratic states, the pluralism of the press was finally established in the post-communist Central European countries as well.

Keywords: freedom of press, censorship, publishing houses, journalism, comparative law