Abstract
The study discloses the secretly held facts of the establishment of Hungarian Television. It analyses the four-year-long process, including fiascos of political decisions, infighting in governmental economic and political organizations, financial aspects, as well as personal conflicts and battles. It discusses the factors leading to the original resolution of establishing Hungarian Television and also the factors contributing to the failure of the resolution. Beyond showing the role and activities of the Television Department itself, the article presents the peculiarities of Hungarian Television stemming from the changes sweeping the Hungarian political, economic and social life between 1952 and 1957.
Highlights
For several decades a generalized view has been maintained that television in the Eastern European countries was a tool of propaganda under state and party control
Most of the studies dealing with the televisions of the Eastern European countries focused on the changes in the communication systems after 1990.1 The original documents for the early years of Hungarian Television were declared secret, kept under tight control in the Radio and Television archive
While the Radio Archive has in operation ever since Hungarian Radio restarted after WWII, the Archive Section of Hungarian Television was established only in early 1957 as part of the Film and Documentation Department
Summary
For several decades a generalized view has been maintained that television in the Eastern European countries was a tool of propaganda under state and party control. Hungarian Television could not afford to order tele-recording equipment It did not use the American kinescope technique – mainly because of the shortage of 16 mm and 35 mm cameras and the high price of imported film. The short films produced in 1955-1957 were lost due to the negligence of the Archive Section following 1957 or they were deliberately destroyed as products of “counterrevolutionary” persons and removed from Hungarian Television. Such procedures were “everyday practice” in Hungarian Radio during the reprisal process. Those studies, deal with small fragments from Hungarian Television and mainly material after the mid-sixties.[5]
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