In this book, Finnish scholar Kaarle Nordenstreng provides a unique
account of the Prague-based International Organization of Journalists, a
group that was at one time the world's largest media association. The
IOJ expanded from a postwar fraternity of professional journalists in
twenty countries to a truly global organization that had its hand in
running journalism schools, a publishing house, a conference service,
and a number of commercial enterprises in Czechoslovakia. Though the
Cold War kept most Western journalists' unions isolated from the
organization, the IOJ was a major player in Communist Eastern Europe--at
its peak in the late 1980s, the IOJ counted 300,000 journalists as
members. Nordenstreng--who served as president of the IOJ for fourteen
years--illuminates this exciting and little-explored chapter in the
history of postwar Europe, from the rise of the Iron Curtain through the
post-Soviet 1990s. He enlivens his firsthand account with personal
testimonies from former IOJ members and a wealth of previously
unpublished internal documents.