as required. We might begin (as Mr. Spicer suggested) by circulating papers in advance outlining Eastern and Central European countries' needs so that we could come together ready to achieve something. I suspect that it would not only be a matter of West helping East -- not for long, anyway. Anyone who believes that we in the West have nothing to learn from countries in the East is plain silly. And yes, if they want it, by all means let's have a working group focusing on how journalists in these new democracies can assert freedom of the press. If this is what they want, let's come to Warsaw next time ready to help those who are lagging behind, those who are drafting new legislation, those who are developing existing laws. Let us understand (as Mr. Jakubowicz has urged) that freedom of the press is part of an ongoing and lengthy process of renewal. There is no perfect quick fix. But, as Hodding Carter said this week, let's have no more CSCE conferences on press freedom -certainly let's have no more lecturing eastern and Central Europe on press freedom. And let us be done with merely cataloguing ways in which freedom of the press is violated. Let's work with the journalists concerned to define what freedom of the press means and whether what they really want (and what we too might benefit from) is a democratic press, and what they can do when there's a violation. When we next meet, let's make sure there is some hope of results. And here I have to say what others have said (some in more diplomatic terms than others) that a conference -- even if it is called a seminar -- cannot sensibly have a goal of doing nothing except talking. This is absurd -- certainly for journalists. And when we come together next time, let's leave behind the disputes between the U.S. and Europe on the relation between the press and government. Not that this isn't a lively subject for debate. But not in a forum like this. I happen to share the view of the Americans and others that journalists have to stand in opposition to anyone who exercises power over others, whether he is the prime minister or the head of the opera guild. I agree with Jock Gallagher that we've got to make journalists believe they can argue with the politicians; but this is easier to learn in England or the U.S. or Canada than it is in many countries where a free press is a new phenomenon and where the government may be seen by journalists as a blessed relief from totalitarianism. But North Americans must understand - which I'm afraid we did not always show ourselves willing to do this week -- that Europe comes from a more authoritarian tradition than we do and takes for granted a degree of public or government interventionism which we may find -- on an ideological level -anathema. All that said, I did notice a tendency this week for some Central and Eastern European delegates to say at once how much things have improved in their countries and how not too much improvement should be expected of them too quickly. This reminded me of Canadian governments' tendency to blame the previous government's inability to keep their promises. I noticed, too, this week how difficult some delegates from western countries find understanding the commitment some Eastern and Central European journalists feel to the national or ethnic cause. Again, I am reminded of Canada, where many Quebec journalists feel an excitement in being a Quebecker that other Canadian journalists don't feel. Absent from our deliberations, it seemed to me, was any analysis of what drives western journalists and media owners and managers, and how journalists in a free society do their work. As often as is the case with other human beings, I suggest without any cynicism, it is greed and vanity that drives journalists in free countries like mine. They want to get the story as much as assert freedom of the press, or opposition to -- or scrutiny of -- government. Let's admit, too, that a free press does not guarantee an exemplary press. Much of what passes for news and journalism in countries with wonderfully free presses is fluff, pap, gossip, garbage. Moreover, the West does not have a perfectly free press. Documents distributed here show that freedom of expression is being undermined most everywhere. CSCE ODIHR BULLETIN Vol. 2, No. 1 37