Media Regulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The international COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact many people's daily lives, and this natural phenomenon does not leave the world of media untouched either. In Central and Eastern Europe, media regulatory processes are often covert; as if governments are using the viral situation to achieve their unstated goals. Freedom of expression as a fundamental human right can quickly face severe restrictions in such cases, raising the problem of conflicting fundamental rights. Legislation, the functioning of the media system, and other media rights issues, have for several years been on the agenda in many Central and Eastern European countries. The exercise of exceptional powers has reached the region; extraordinary seems to become the norm.

This edited volume aims to bring together the historical and contemporary challenges for the press, the news media, and our mediatised world. It explores the issue from the perspectives of legal history and existing law, as well as social and political science, identifying the intersections where past experience can help to address the social and regulatory challenges of the present.

The main objective of the book is to make visible the links between the pandemic situation and media legislation (negative and positive), its history, its social impact, its effects on the exercise of fundamental rights, and the experience, research findings and academic positions in Central and Eastern Europe on past and current regulatory issues. It is a collection that will add greatly to contemporary research on Central and Eastern Europe, and will be of interest to researchers and scholars interested in the region, and in wider law, media and socio-political issues.