Helsinki Process

In political communication, the Helsinki Process relates to freedom of expression; more exactly to freedom of information, free access to cultural works, and the rights of journalists to freely work and access information. The expression refers to the series of events that followed the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) from the early 1970s on.

The conference was initiated by Soviet leaders in the era of the détente (relaxation of tensions between East and West). The initiative was initially met by skepticism in the West and by democratic opposition in socialist states in Central and Eastern Europe (“dissidents”), as it was expected to formalize the division of Europe as part of the Cold War. However, providing earlier powerless and subdued oppositional voices within the ...