ABSTRACT
Until the beginning of the so-called systems change in 1988, there was no media market and no free press in Hungary. After the socialist dictatorship gave way to a democratic market economy, the nation’s media conditions experienced radical transformation. Until 1988, all press products were owned, governed, and operated by the state. As a result, there was little variety in mediated public opinion. Opinions that criticized or questioned government could not be published, and content also had to conform to state directives. Although some secondary (samizdat) publications existed, they only reached a narrow circle of a few thousand intellectuals.
