Hope and Reality: Poland and the Conference on Security and ...

on <strong>the</strong> press. “Licenses” for publishing new press titles would be replaced withregistration, paper policy would be liberalized, (access to paper was restricted <strong>and</strong>only <strong>the</strong> authorities could distribute it), <strong>and</strong> faxes <strong>and</strong> satellite aerials which hadpreviously been forbidden without official permission would be legalized. Manychanges were advised in <strong>the</strong> censorship office to adapt its activity to <strong>the</strong>recommendations from Vienna. It was decided that censorship should be limited tostate <strong>and</strong> military secrets. Also, <strong>the</strong> policy governing <strong>the</strong> import of foreignpublications was to be gradually liberalized beginning with publications forprofessionals <strong>and</strong> institutions, <strong>and</strong> finally for general publications. The documentindicated that <strong>the</strong>re was also a need to change Polish law <strong>and</strong> introduceamendments which would facilitate <strong>the</strong> defense of accused persons, make trialprocedures more just, <strong>and</strong> limit <strong>the</strong> situations in which <strong>the</strong> death penalty could beapplied. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Ministry of Interior were toprepare Polish expectations <strong>and</strong> postulates, which were to be presented to <strong>the</strong>Western countries during <strong>the</strong> next CSCE meetings. They mostly concerned travel<strong>and</strong> visa policies; reducing fees <strong>and</strong> simplification of <strong>the</strong> procedures for Polishcitizens. 131What is worth remembering is that at <strong>the</strong> beginning of February <strong>the</strong> RoundTable talks began between Solidarity <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> ruling party. They ended in April1989, with partly-free parliamentary elections held in June. After this election, amixed communist–Solidarity government was created, led by TadeuszMazowiecki, <strong>the</strong> first non-communist prime minister in <strong>the</strong> Soviet bloc.3.4. Basket IIEconomic questions remained very important throughout <strong>the</strong> entire periodunder discussion. Western countries treated <strong>the</strong>se questions as dependent on <strong>the</strong>Basket I <strong>and</strong> Basket III problems. When <strong>the</strong> international situation deteriorated at130 J.M. Nowak, Pol<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> OSCE...., p.5.62