§ Human Contacts
§ In Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union older people have in general a far greater chance of emigration and travel than young people. For everyone, it is hard and expensive to get the necessary documents. In the field of human contacts, the performance of Poland (before December) 85WA and Hungary remained rather liberal but the restrictions on travel imposed in Poland since the imposition of military rule contravened the Human Contacts provisions of the Final Act. In Czechoslovakia and Romania there has been no significant change since the last review period. In Bulgaria there was no improvement as regards family meetings and re-unifications or bi-national marriages, though there has been a slight improvement in tourism and travel. In the GDR there has been some improvement in family reunification. In the Soviet Union however in all matters of human contacts the situation has got markedly worse.
§ Information
§ Until the imposition of severe restrictions in Poland, the implementation of commitments under the Final Act had again remained virtually unchanged. East European governments maintained strict control over the dissemination of information coming from the West, and very few commercial western newspapers, periodicals, books and films were available to the general public.
§ Jamming by the Soviet Union of almost all broadcasts in Russian and other Soviet languages by the BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and Radio Liberty continued through the period. Since late December, following the imposition of martial law in Poland, Polish language broadcasts, including those of the BBC, have been jammed from stations in the Soviet Union. During the period, transmissions to Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia by Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe were also jammed. There were no significant improvements in the working conditions of Western journalists during the period under review, and conditions in Poland deteriorated sharply after 13th December.
§ Culture and Education
§ Cultural relations with the Soviet Union narrowed in the period under review. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe, no significant changes in implementation occurred in the fields of culture and education.