To see them intimidated like this by thugs that could have walked right out of something by Bulgakov or even Kafka is a sobering prospect.
It translates into: the free press is now classed an enemy of the state and equates to terrorism.
I've lived in Poland before the iron curtain came down, in the years when Jaruzelski ruled the country and when Solidarnosc was just beginning to form, the free press was classed an enemy of the state there as well. Mere posession of an illegal book or paper could get you into a lot of trouble.
The state sanctioned media were extremely circumspect in their reporting of what was going on in Gdansk and Gdynia but word trickled out and slowly Polish people everywhere started to see light at the end of the tunnel.
Reagan, the Afghan war and Gorbachev all played a part in the fall of the Soviet Union. But Poland and especially Solidarity, Wałęsa and Popiełuszko deserve a good chunk of the credit too.
A not so visible part of all of this is that the free press in Poland (called the samizdat) spread not only books but also 10's of thousands of copies of the underground newspaper Solidarnosc, many of which were read by multiple people, passed from hand to hand to trusted friends. These were the only counterweight to state media (newspaper, radio, television) and the contrast between the two was stark.
I wonder if the Solidarity movement would have gotten off the ground as well as it did and whether Poland would have made the early move to freedom without such a free press (and in some cases it wasn't even a press but simply hand-copying or re-typing!).
It is the only historical change that I have had the privilege of observing at very close quarters, so my experience is limited. But a free press to me is a must have, it is as important as having a system of government, and to have a free press we must have journalists and newspapers that are free to operate.
Otherwise one of these days we'll have to resort to underground presses like in the days of communism in Poland, press freedom is very important no matter who governs you, and government officials intimidating the press is a very bad sign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_%28Polish_trade_unio...