This book-length report is the outgrowth of a fact-finding mission (in July and August 1990) from the Gannett Foundation to Central and Eastern Europe to assess the current state and probable future of press freedom there. The report investigates the condition and needs of the print and electronic media of four countries--Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. It explores the condition of media in the area, offers a country-by-country analysis, and lists the considerable efforts of others from the United States and Western Europe who are already there helping. Following an executive summary, an introduction dealing with the rebirth of free expression in Eastern Europe, and a summary discussing the media and people of the nations of Central and Eastern Europe, the report is in four major sections on Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. Each section discusses the country in context, gives the task force report on that country's media as well as an overview of the media, and lists media contacts. Appendixes contain conclusions and recommendations of the task force, a select bibliography, a brief section on what Americans can learn from Eastern Europe, an inventory of western projects to aid Eastern European Media, and some views of "insiders" on Eastern Europe and the media. (SR)