W 046 F

Introduction

The first thing that many people do in the morning is opening one of the daily newspapers and browsing among the articles. The reader can get useful information about what is going on in our country and around the world. Newspapers are to inform the public about the up-to-date affairs, meetings, and events, but it also entertains. There are a big variety of papers from which I can read the actual happening. But they have a common thing: they all reveal the standards of a given nation in a given period.

With this paper I would like to show how it happens, how the political background is reflected on journalism. I wish to discover that during the communist period what kind of norm was accepted and pressed by the government. I also plan to point out to articles written in 1976, which can lead me towards to prop up my statement.

Method

To find the possible answers I went to Janus Pannonius University Library. As I was born in 1976 I mainly looked for books and notes which contained useful information about the actual political system and journalism. Reading the books I paid attention to the feature of the system. It took shape that the operation rules and criteria had to be followed in every field of our lives. Then at the newspaper corner I checked one issue of Dunántúli Napló. It was
published on 29th April , the day when I was born. Since I had idea about the characteristics,
I tried to find out how they were revealed. I made two major categories: home and foreign affairs. Within the domestic issues I separated subcategories: working hard, getting award for it, use the production surplus in other fields and foreign affairs.

Results and Discussion
”Világ proletárjai, egyesüljetek!” (Marx 37)

This statement became the slogan of the communists. The communist system spread through many countries rapidly. In Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels wrote down how an ideal word should look like. Both of them realized, that it was time to change, and worked out a project of a new political system, called communism.

In Hungary the first communist organizations appeared around 1830. The communist party, the MSZMP, was formed in 1918. Many people followed them and agreed with their ideas. According to Marx: the party members were equal. They accepted communism and obeyed the leaders. In case members got expellation from the party, they could not be reheared.

” Az információ áradata” (Róka 55)

The power of this new system grew quickly. It became clear soon that there are only two things: either obey the leaders or be enemy of the society. The government had enough power to take control of organisations and industries. Media did not make an exception.

The history of the media reveals a discontinuous discovery. Sometimes it did not leave a mark. Róka says that journalism is an information genre and this is the “leghatásosabb eszköz az információközlésben.“ (5-6) The texts are less graphic, but taking the content into account, it is very thorough. Formerly the newspaper included more entertaining materials, which then disappeared. Only a few serial and programs were published. The percentage of advertisement, radio and television program and lottery prize also decreased not only in Dunántúli Napló, but in other newspapers as well: Népszava or Népszabadság.

As the parties governed the newspaper, the messages could not be independent. This and the higher requirements cause bigger trustworthiness. The media organized the social life and the production.

During 1973-74 party decisions were established to keep order. They had two major fields: one was the system of direction of the press. The media had to accept the political parties’ idea and aim and had to reveal it in the newspaper for this reason the articles introduced the parties’ activities. More writing appeared on internal events, and gave details.

The other field in which the parties made decision was the controlling the press in advance. There were forbidden words such as ”szegénység, nemzeti kisebbség, és a zsidókérdés.” (Murányi 220) Editors appeared as masked censors, and they decided to publish a news or not. In 1976 using drugs resulted the death of 20 victims. The censors could avoid the appearance of a news in the newspaper. If a journalist still used a prohibited word, he or she had to explain. Information about foreign affairs were either hidden or published in a few lines. If a person died the article could not be too long. Its extension and the mode of writing were ruled. Sometimes the article became very unworthy and humiliating.

Work and awards

In the ideal world people would be equal. It means the end of class distinction and the rise of the lower, poorer class. People had to work a lot to achieve this aim, build the country and their homes.

The articles reflected that work stood on the first place. The workers spent most of the time at work to fulfil the plans. Sometimes they worked overtime. To show satisfaction, the government praised the workers by giving them charters and honors, as the articles from Dunántúli Napló show:

The Martos brigade have been working outstandingly for public welfare and was awarded for the ”eredményes munkáért” (Horváth 1). They took the responsibility to increase the speaking time. Out of 60 minutes 40 ones are actually filled up with speaking… they often visit and help three pensioners. For the poor children they present clothes, toys, books and for 4 years the members of the socialist brigade have been taking care of some soldiers’ grave, and for these they won the excellent brigade title.

Another award was given to the miners, who sold seventy-nine thousand tons of coal and fulfilled 105,7 percent of the first quarter-year plan. The development teamwork made a lot of effort – was heard during a forum where twenty-three socialist brigade leaders attended. Having made team contracts, the leaders and other workers ”kitüntetésben részesültek” (Az er. munk. 2)

Surplus

The communists believed that if everbody works hard, the product should be divided equally. Besides, the surplus can be used in other fields, which are less successful. On 29th April, 1997 a second part of Sopiana started its working. Since people’s hard work resulted 70 million Forint production surplus, they had enough money to build another industry. As Ferencsik stated: “új ágazatok létesítése és bõvítése a cél” (217)

The concept of the system was the economical production. They wanted people to save up what they could. Although they had new houses built, the insulation was a problem. Some experts worked out a new system to save up energy:

“Nem füttünk gazdaságosan (Energ. megtak. 3) – was told in a conference in Warsaw. It was also true for Pécs. The district-heating company made an attempt to solve this problem. They built in heating regulators, which controls the heat automatically.

Foreign affairs

The system required journalist to select the news, which came from other countries. People were made to believe, that communism was the perfect world in which they should live. Less information was published about those countries where the political concept was different.
In the United States of America everyone watched the pre-elections. In Hungary Dunántúli Napló reported shortly on page 15: Washington: James Carter is reported to having won the pre-election held in Pennsylvania yesterday. His party will nominate him for the presidential post in November. Since Senator Henry Jackson lost his chances, Carter’s only competitor remained Senator Hubert Humprey.

Since Portugal became also a communist country, a report of their election was detailed. They listed all the political parties and the percentage they got:

“According to the official information of the election, these are the following results:
Socialist Party 34,97%
Democratic Social Centrum 24,03%
Democratic People’s Party 15,91%
Communist Party 14,56%
People’s Democratic Union 7,01%
Proletariat Party 0,67%
Socialist Popular Front 0,78%
Progressive Socialist Mov. 0,58% Monarchist People’s Party 0,52%
Communist League 0,30%
Workers and Peasants Union 0,29%
Portuguese Communist Party 0,29%
(Marxists – Leninists)

The government gave other orders. When a party congress was to come, they decided selected one paper to make an interview with which leader or the other to report the events. They divided the work. Editors had to accept these plans. The general editor was under control. As Murányi says in his book, journalists had orientation in every second week, where ”kiosztották a feladatokat” (223). Later the government initiated more persons from the media. They had to do what they were told. Journalists could not tell their opinion in their writings, only to report the facts. Sometimes they did not put signature under the articles.

Conclusion

A hard political system occurred in Hungary during the 1970s. Taking a deep look inside it did not work out that perfectly. On the surface it gave freedom and equality to people, but indeed it was a very strict system. If somebody did not accept the orders, that person was arrested, put into jail. In the 1970s some were killed “koholt vádak alapján” (Fencsik 217). Communism required everyone to accept their idea and to follow certain rules and laws. Since it became a powerful system, it took a lot of organisations and industries under control. The media did not make an exception. It was also governed by the authority. As I read the newspaper, I realised, that this background was revealed in the articles appeared in Dunántúli Napló. Journalists could not write freely. They had to accommodate themselves to the government and the criteria. They were not supposed to write down their opinion and they needed to wrote the articles in a given length, too. As Murányi says in his book (see motto), the media can be never independent from the politics. I believe, that this statement is the main point of my paper.

I enjoyed writing this research. I liked putting the materials I have found together. I also learnt about the relationship between journalism and the political life.