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Prior to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Hungary was not on the map of most Western journalists. During the Rákosi Era, correspondents were not allowed free entry into the country. This restriction even applied to Western correspondents boasting of Communist Party membership, who in many cases were considered to be spies (the Edith Bone / Edit Hajós affair). Moreover, the international news agencies were more inclined to locate their journalists in Prague or, within the framework of the Cold War, Vienna.

All of this changed with the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Journalists from the largest Western news agencies poured in, often putting themselves at great personal risk. Their presence also filled the Hungarian insurgents with hope, who mistakenly drew the wrong conclusions from all the attention they were receiving from around the world.

Fierce debates took place in the Communist Party newspapers of the West. Through the pages of the Daily Worker, a communist newspaper published in both the United States and Great Britain, though with differing content, we look at the various interpretations of the most important events associated with the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Following the armed suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Western journalists were forced to depart from Hungary. Media from west of the Elbe River were viewed as “enemies” by Kádár apparatchiks, even as they tried to convince that same media of presenting a more favorable picture of Hungary.