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Katona, Pál: We kept the BBC's dignity Unlike Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, we in the Hungarian Department of the BBC in the autumn of 1956 always kept the BBC's dignity, though we were all stirred emotionally to the utmost degree. I won't say we kept its objectivity or impartiality, because I don't believe there is such a thing, they're just idle words. Anyone honest is always committed in some direction. You can only keep your dignity and cool, not your objectivity. In this case, moderation was meant, and a very strict, resolute avoidance of anything that might be called incitement. The head of Central European broadcasts at the time was György Tarján, and [Ferenc] Rentoul had been head of the Hungarian Department for many years. Those two were the past masters of dispassionate BBC broadcasts. But they were by no means objective in the sense of not taking a position.
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