[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 24, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          HUNGARIAN DEMOCRACY

                                 ______


                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 24, 1994

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, since the fall of the Iron Curtain many 
American observers have watched the changes in Eastern Europe with much 
hope and expectation. The Hungarian elections held earlier this month 
show that a functioning democracy can be established in the former 
Soviet empire. I would commend the following report regarding press 
freedoms in Hungary to Members' attention.

            Report on the Situation of the Media in Hungary

                      (By Z. Michael Szaz, Ph.D.)


                              introduction

       The structure and objectives of the media, especially the 
     electronic media in Hungary, cannot be simply compared to 
     their structure and objectives in the United States. The 
     historical and political background of their development is 
     completely different as is their programmatic and political 
     context.
       Hungarian radio was founded during the Horthy period and 
     was completely state-run as had been most European radio 
     stations of the era, regardless of the political ideology 
     prevailing in the particular country. This tradition of 
     public radio which would not only run news and popular music 
     programs but sponsor symphonic orchestras, sports events, 
     historical, literary and folklore programs is deeply embedded 
     in the minds of all protagonists of the present dispute, 
     whether on the conservative, liberal, or the Socialist side. 
     The radio was financed by a user's fee in Hungary paid by the 
     public listening to the programs of the Hungarian Radio. Of 
     course, already during the Horthy period, the government's 
     control over the radio resulted in many programs praising the 
     government and its patriotic agenda and critical programs 
     were sparse on the Hungarian radio before 1945.
       This situation favored an easy Communist takeover of the 
     radio programs in 1948, after a short-lived diversity between 
     1945-48 that was never allowed to blossom and which even then 
     was severely restricted by the presence of Soviet occupation 
     troops.
       Under the Rakosi regime the radio's professional staff was 
     successively retired or fired and new Communist activists 
     took over programming. It was not a one-year effort, but a 
     cumulative assumption of the key programming positions by 
     committed and, later also well-trained, Communist activists 
     and after one generation by the progeny of trusted cadres. 
     Radio, and later television programming positions, where they 
     did not have to get rid of old professionals, became the 
     reward for the services of the most trusted party cadres, 
     most of whom by the 1970s and 1980s were also professionally 
     well-trained but absolutely loyal to the HSWP. Many of the 
     foreign correspondents, including one of the cause celebres, 
     Mr. Gyorgy Bolgar, were members of the Hungarian military and 
     other intelligence agencies and others were informers for the 
     secret police at home.
       In the television, the HSWP encountered few difficulties as 
     it was in complete control by the time the MTV (Hungarian 
     Television) was established as a government-controlled 
     entity.
       But journalists are an inquisitive and critical group and 
     in the 1980s the HSWP allowed them some room to maneuver. 
     Certain criticism of the existing domestic situation was 
     permitted and in the late 1980s even the situation of the two 
     million Transylvanian Hungarians in Ceausescu's Romania 
     joined the list of tolerated topics, especially on the 
     Hungarian TV. However, the Party and the Soviet Union could 
     not be criticized. These concessions created a certain 
     impression of media freedom and many of the programmers took 
     advantage of them, to mention only Mr. Alajos Hrudinac and 
     Dr. Andras Sugar at the TV Panorama News Magazine and Akos 
     Mester and the programmers of the Sunday Newspaper (Vasarnapi 
     Ujsag) in the Hungarian Radio.
       In conclusion, it must be stated that in May 1990, the 
     month of the first free elections in Hungary since 1945, the 
     Hungarian media, including, of course, the written media, 
     were in the hands of professionals who were trained during 
     the Kadar regime, were loyal and zealous servants of the 
     regime by their family and political background and those at 
     the higher echelons expected to be fired by the new directors 
     of the electronic media and privatized newspaper editors.
       In contrast to other countries in the region 
     (Czechoslovakia, Poland), the housecleaning never took place 
     in Hungary that year. The newspaper editors and their staff 
     were needed by the foreign investors and we have the 
     situation that the former Communist daily which had the 
     largest circulation in the country, Nepszabadsag. still 
     retains the largest circulation figures, is advertised on 
     almost all buses, trolleys and subways in Budapest and its 
     professionally adept editor, Pal Eotvos and his staff are 
     able to slant the news and criticize the government from the 
     standpoint of the reform Communists, the Hungarian Socialist 
     party and Mr. Eotvos could not complain of any infringement 
     of his press freedom to me on April 15, 1994. In my 
     interviews with Peter Nemeth, the liberal editor of the 
     Magyar Hirlap, a high circulation liberal daily, the same 
     press freedom was praised. The pro-government press has 
     relatively small circulation and lacks the financial 
     resources and the trained staff, although the Christian 
     Democratic Pesti Hirlap has journalists with the right 
     confrontational style, but the able editor of the Uj 
     Magyarorszxag did not yet succeed to obtain the right staff 
     to produce an interesting and confrontational daily a la 
     Magyar Hirlap, or the Pesti Hirtap. The Magyar Nemzet, which 
     even in the Communist days retained a more moderate and 
     professional approach and good foreign news coverage, is 
     still serious-minded, but decidedly liberal.
       A boulevard press, only on a slightly higher level than our 
     tabloid papers, also arose, and among them the Kurir is well-
     liked for its muckraking style and catering to the baser 
     sentiments in men. Again, its targets are either crooks or 
     government officials and it could be well listed as the 
     tabloid equivalent of the Nepsdzabadsag as far as its 
     political objectives are considered.
       This should be sufficient about the Hungarian press which 
     is about 80 per cent anti-government, either of the liberal, 
     or the Socialist persuasion and represents an almost 
     impenetrable bulwark against any government attempts to get a 
     fair hearing in the press. However, the press is privately 
     funded and the pro-government journalists have a chance of 
     establishing their own press organs and two of the government 
     parties (HDF and CDPP) have done so. Nobody, not even the 
     liberals and Socialists, detect any infringement of press 
     freedom in Hungary.

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