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Following October 23rd, 1956, the international press had its collective eye on Budapest for several weeks. The dramatic events of the Hungarian Revolution made headlines in international newspapers and were the lead item on both televised and radio news programs. Never in her history (and for a long time hence) had Hungary received so much media attention. Shocking photos and film recordings elicited the most emotional responses from all round the world. Thanks to these detailed reports, the Free World received an authentic representation of the brave but hopeless struggle that the Hungarian freedom fighters partook in as they battled the mighty and overpowering Soviet armed forces.
In the final week of October, dozens of foreign onsite correspondents, photojournalists and cameramen, many of them from the West, arrived in Hungary to report on the revolution and subsequent events. The peak number of journalists in Budapest occurred between October 29th and November 10th, when according to inexact estimates there were approximately 100-150.
Through news reports, photographs and broadcasts, the media attempted to reconstruct the circumstances in Budapest, reporting on the difficulties their journalists endured, who was helping them with their work and highlighting the most newsworthy items on behalf of their international audiences. The communist newspapers based in the Free World had their reports on the events as well. We will take a look at how they differed. Through an analysis of the work of the Tájékoztatási Hivatal (Information Office) we will also take a behind-the-scenes look at domestic media accounts.
