This is a unique account of the history of what was once the world's largest association in the media field-its gradual expansion from a post-World War II fraternity of professional journalists in some 20 countries to a vast organization covering 120 countries, and running several schools of journalism, a publishing house, a conference service and various commercial companies in Czechoslovakia. During its heyday in the late 1980s the IOJ membership amounted to 300,000 journalists around the world. However, after the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s most national unions of journalist in the western countries remained outside the IOJ, while it extensively covered journalist in the socialist East and developing South. Hence, the book provides an exciting chapter in the history of the Cold War and the fall of the socialist regimes in Europe, which also led to the demise of the IOJ. The author - a Finnish journalism educator and media scholar - served as President of the IOJ for 14 years during its heyday and in the crucial year 1990, when the Soviet-led communist order in central-eastern Europe was replaced by new western oriented regimes, also among journalists. In addition to a chronological account of the organization, the book includes testimonies by several actors inside and outside the IOJ and comprehensive appendices containing so far unpublished documents. Book jacket.