ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the course of institutional reconstruction of the news media in Hungary, which focused on the role the media played vis-a-vis the government and the opposition parties. In critical ways this focus perpetuated a kind of political dependence of the media; political parties competed to assume the position evacuated by the Communist party. In September 1989, when negotiations about elections were underway the party leadership doubtless foresaw its future as one party among many competing for political authority. In the short-run, though, the political environment leading up to the first election could be constructed to help the party as much as possible. The debate over legal changes in the status of the Hungarian media is fairly representative of East Central Europe. New political elites and legislators engaged in contests for political power as well as authority in the process of constitution-making.
