Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's election defeat in April ended a 16-year rule marked by media control and restrictions on press freedoms BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Just a few months ago, Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi faced smear campaigns in the pro-government media and accusations by top officials of spying for Ukraine. When the government filed a criminal complaint against him for espionage, he faced the prospect of years in prison, and left for Poland. Now, following an election in April that swept former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán out of office after 16 years in power, Panyi is again strolling the streets of the Hungarian capital, Budapest, and preparing to release his book, “Friends with Benefits,” which details Russian intelligence penetration and influence operations in Hungary.
Orbán's landslide loss in the election changed the fortunes of Panyi and many other journalists in the Central European country, where the populist leader had consolidated control over the media and cracked down on press freedoms. When Orbán returned to power in 2010, Hungary ranked 23rd on press watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. But by last year, it had dropped to 68th, and the group had put Orbán — an ally of both U.S.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — on its list of media “predators.” But now, under Hungary’s new center-right, pro-European government led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, pressure on independent journalists has eased. Two weeks after the April election, police announced they'd dropped the Orbán government's espionage complaint against Panyi, a fact he said showed that police and prosecutors had been under Orbán's “tight political control.” “The political pressure is gone,” he said. But I believe we’re in a much, much better place than we were before April.” For a decade and a half, Orbán and his far-right Fidesz party operated a sprawling pro-government media empire that bolstered their narratives, smeared opponents and controlled what an independent analysis found was around 80% of Hungary's media market.
On the campaign trail, Magyar vowed to end what he called “Orbán propaganda,” particularly that emanating from Hungary's taxpayer-funded public media, which had served as a government mouthpiece. After taking office in May, Magyar's administration suspended news programming on public radio and television. Viewers who tuned in saw only white text on a black screen which read: “Public media should not lie.
We are sorry for doing it for so many years!” Since then, much of the public media's leadership has been replaced and news broadcasts have resumed. Gábor Polyák, a media researcher and professor who took over as head of Hungary's media authority last week, said that during Orbán's rule the nine-member media council was composed exclusively of members nominated by Fidesz, who assisted in creating “an incredible concentration in the market, basically for political reasons.” Under the new government, half the media council Polyák leads is nominated by the governing party and half by opposition parties, with the president selected through an open application process and elected by lawmakers. Magyar's government has taken other steps to dismantle Orbán's media dominance, including shuttering Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Office — a Fidesz-era authority seen by opponents as a tool for intimidating critics and silencing independent media — and passing legislation prohibiting “political advertisements that incite hatred” that were a hallmark of campaign periods.
Under Orbán, the government was the largest advertiser in Hungary, and a study by watchdog Mérték Media Monitor showed up to 90% of state advertising revenue was awarded to pro-Fidesz media outlets, keeping them financially afloat. Those revenue streams have since dried up, and scores of Fidesz-tied outlets and social media influencers have sharply cut back or closed. In October 2016, Hungary’s largest-circulation political daily, the left-leaning Népszabadság, was suddenly shut down after its parent company was acquired by an investor with ties to Orbán.
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