Hungarian TV Monitoring 1989

In 1989, the communist party state crumbles in front of our eyes on television. As in the previous several decades, only the representatives of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party and of the People’s Patriotic Front sit in the benches of the Parliament, but this time they are debating the right of gathering, pluralism, democratic transition and market economy. News programs report on the events organized by the new parties such as the Alliance of Young Democrats, the Alliance of Free Democrats, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, their representatives are invited to talk shows. Reports on the March 15 celebrations are about festive and spirited masses rather than subversive demonstrators forcefully controlled by the police, and the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution and the fall of the Romanian dictator are keenly followed.