In the Eastern Bloc much like the rest of Soviet Union the means of mass communication were operated and owned by various state ministries. However, in some Eastern Bloc countries local newspapers were allowed greater freedom then that of their Russian counterparts, these special cases include Yugoslavia, Poland, and Hungary. The liberalization of the news in these countries is largely due to the rise of nationalism among them, specifically in Yugoslavia under the rule of Josip Broz Tito, while Albania and Romania continued to exist under strict censorship control. And so, the eastern bloc countries offer an interesting case of similar news policies with widely differing media functions.