333. Telegram From the Embassy in Hungary to the Department of State1
5754.
Budapest, June 16, 1987,
1440Z
SUBJECT
- Hungarian TV Coverage of Riots in East Berlin.
REF
- EmbBerlin 2179.2
- 1.
- Confidential—Entire text.
Summary:
- 2.
- Hungarian TV has carried surprisingly accurate coverage of the unrest in East Berlin during rock concerts in West Berlin and of the President’s speech at the Wall.3 Footage included the President’s appeal to Gorbachev to tear down the Wall. A dissident contact commented that the GOH feels it has latitude from Moscow to needle the old fogies [Page 1053] in Prague and Berlin. A CC contact pointedly omitted both those two from his list of “reforming” socialist states now working together.
End summary.
- 3.
- During the evening news on 10 June MTV Channel 1 carried what was obviously Western footage of youths scuffling with police in East Berlin, along with straightforward reporting on the three successive nights of concerts. The prestigious Sunday weekly wrap-up TV program “A Het” on 14 June carried footage of the President’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate. The brief report included Reagan’s call on Gorbachev to tear down the Wall.
- 4.
- A Hungarian dissident contact explained this strange new TV “glasnost” by commenting that the GOH believes it has support from Gorbachev for any swipes it may take at the aging leadership in both Berlin and Prague.
Comment:
- 5.
- Until recently, the GOH has adhered faithfully to an East Bloc rule that only events already reported in the country where they occurred were fair game for the official media. Although technically in compliance with the rule on these occasions, Hungarian TV has certainly not reported the Berlin events in the spirit of other East Bloc coverage, especially given the denials coming out of East Berlin, and the sharp reaction to Reagan’s speech from both the GDR and Moscow.
Kursch
- Source: Reagan Library, Rudolf Perina Files, Hungary—Substance 1987 (2). Confidential. Sent for information to USIA, Eastern European posts, Munich, the mission to NATO, Moscow (pouch), and Vienna.↩
- See Document 294.↩
- See footnote 5, Document 59.↩