such as water supplies in a city - that are at the heart of the media's function. Without it, the media is prone to speculation - even sensationalism - that undermines its own credibility in the long run. Without credible media, the authorities will find it harder to maintain genuine public support. Of course, the explanations for the lack of spokespeople are totally understandable in countries where vast numbers of trained people have been swept away by the anti-Communist earthquake: the current practitioners come mostly either from the tiny number of survivors still marked by authoritarian reflexes despite their new professed credos or from the masses of untrained recruits hired in the wake of purges. But the concrete discussion pointed to a perhaps overlooked need to ensure training for people to help their institutions deal with the media for the greater good of all. It was a small example of the much direr disparities that emerged in our discussions - the lack of material means, the need for time for new reflexes to take hold, the need for overall economic change to produce a real media market. In such conditions, press diversity - the ultimate guarantee of media responsibility is minimal. In such circumstances, few journalists can afford to weigh the virtues of independence, especially in Europe's most troubled countries. Much dedicated work has gone into helping the new media in the form of aid and training. In this context, many imaginative initiatives have been taken to harness new technologies for these new conditions: for example, satellites are enabling Western broadcasters to provide their foreign-language programs to local stations as a core of material around which they can develop their own audiences and markets. Acknowledging the benefits of assistance that has been received, our group's participants also underscored the point that recipients' ability to make productive use of help is also expanding - and also, inevitably, having to compete with the requirements of all the other social sectors for talent and help. All our countries face the unending educational job of building the image of the press, often tarnished by the experiences and also the ideological wars of the last decades along with the material struggle to construct a professional media in the developing democracies. So, it was a clear outcome of the debate that it will remain vital for governments and organisations such as the CSCE, as well as NGOs and foundations, to continue aid to media-deprived countries - for years to come. Thus far, several participants from recipient countries noted, a substantially larger proportion of help for media in the developing democracies has come from public and private sources in the United States than from all other donors combined. In our discussion of professional difficulties in the developing democracies, the point was powerfully made by participants in different ways that the situations where help is most needed are often those where it is most difficult to provide it effectively. Where could the media matter more than in the war zones inside the CSCE area - for example, among Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia and the neighbouring area? In war time, it is naive to expect too much of journalism, but media clearly can have an impact in periods of pre-war tension, at turning points in capitals, and in consolidating a tentative peace. International benefactors have recognised that information has a powerful role to play in such crises, but in many instances attempts by outsiders to help media have been frustrating. Supply convoys have been hijacked. Locally based radio stations are overwhelmed by large, state-owned broadcasting. Even the initiative of a ship broadcasting impartial news from international waters has encountered technical problems and some complaints that it engulfed too big a share of the prospective aid tool. But these frustrations in helping media in zones of tension have made it plainer - for the future - what the hurdles are and what some solutions might be. Clearly, there is no substitute for helping local journalists. They have the audience, they have the responsibility, they have the professional will to get independent information and diffuse it objectively. New technologies offering cheaper more deliverable information can help. Internet, for example, might be a way of getting data and access to printed materials into the hands of journalists. More imagination is needed in pursuing this new goal: waging information wars to stabilise regional crises. This objective implies changes in powerful Western media practice, too: as media cut back their budgets, there is a growing tendency for freelancers to be the only source of our information in some dangerous crises because they alone will run the risks. To protect this asset, media groups within the CSCE might envisage a common insurance fund for journalists with CSCE ODIHR BULLETIN Vol. 2, No. 1 29