The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

PRESS AND MEDIA ARCHIVES - The Archives of the Hungarian News Service by Andrea Pálfi-József Bana

BY ANDREA PÁLFI AND JÓZSEF BANA THE ARCHIVES OF THE HUNGARIAN NEWS SERVICE T

he MTI (MTI is a Hungarian abbreviation of Hungarian News Ageucy) is one of the oldest businesses of Hungary. Its history goes back to the Compromise of 1867 when the economy started an incredible grow. It required an institution that was able to fulfil the demands of quick information and news change and which fulfilled specially the demands of the Hungarian Kingdom and was able to make a clear arrangement in the field of news information. It could only be done with the help of establishing MTI. Broadcasting news by MTI started at the beginning of 1881 under the leadership of Géza Egyesi and Hugó Maszák. They made it a basic condition that country newspapers should also be supported and the information network should cover the whole country The news service was developed according to it in the following years. The base of the information published in the domestic press is the news and reports, and photos of MTI. The successful tendency was stopped by the world-wide catastrophe but after the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet Republic and after the country got over it the MTI grew into a press empire as a share company. In World War II it tried to fulfil the demands of war news and reports in which the spreading radio meant a great help. After the war the media empire began to shrink, first the Telediffusion then the Hungarian Film Office was abolished, then the Hungarian Radio separated and the statutory supervision meant the loss of independence. The years of the 1950s were very difficult for the news service, too. The charismatic personality of Sándor Barcs helped to get through these difficulties. It meant to be a great success and professional recognition that the MTI was accepted in the Association of the European News Service, the Alliance in the 1970s. At the beginning of thel980s with the spreading of television ad radio the variety and supply of the news service also increased. In July 1988 Econews started, which was the first economic news service of MTI. First just in English then from 1990 in Hungarian. In 1989 the country Press service was formed so that the forming parties, civil organizations could be able to publish and broadcast their announcements, opinions. The OTS