The first Hungarian language broadcasts by Romania's public television started on November 23, 1969. At the peak of the service, television journalists were publishing an annual 600 political and economic new items, a hundred lead stories, 150 musical programmes and 60-70 political commentaries a year. The output, from the ninth storey of Romanian public television's building in Bucharest, was something to be proud of, staff past and present agree.
The service was halted by Romania's communist regime in 1985 and was not seen again until the Christmas of 1989, when a few former editors restarted broadcasts with little technical background and the assistance of amateur video operators. The service covered stories important to the Hungarian minority in Romania, including the bloody conflict in Targu Mures and the attack against the headquarters of Romanian public television in May and June, respectively, of 1990.
Hungarian language television broadcasts in Romania were expanded to include talks on questions of immigration, Hungarian language instruction and the re-establishment of a Hungarian university, in addition to news and cultural reports.
From the second half of the 90s, the monopoly of Romania's public television vanished as cable TV service providers entered the market and the offering of Hungarian language programming grew exponentially, with studios for such programming opening in cities all over Transylvania.
The gala to mark the anniversary took place at the Csíki Theatre. The programme was MCed by István Nagy and Magdolna Grosu. Tibor Cári, Open Stage, Annamari Dancs, NemEZ, Judit Hary and János Ádám, Róbert Laczkó Vass and Zselyke Székely, Ibolya Nagy, Knock Out and the Hargita National Szekler Folk Ensemble took the stage. Attila Markó, state secretary at the office of inter-ethnic relations, welcomed the gala's participants at the mayor's office.
Source: Múlt-kor
