The problems of the Hungarian media situation have been widely known for years now. Systemic changes had been implemented already in the 2010s. By now, the contours of the new media regime are manifest. The current situation is largely frozen, although shifts in emphasis still occur. Nevertheless, it is worth documenting the ongoing changes in the Hungarian media system because although we experience a lack of media freedom every day, being able to marshal facts that provide empirical evidence for this perception provides a whole different dimension of analysis.
Like the foregoing Soft Censorship analyses, the current study also cannot provide a comprehensive picture of the state of the Hungarian media, which would be a vast undertaking beyond the scope of our capacities. Instead, we focus on a few prominent areas.
The Overview section presents the main events concerning the media in Hungary in 2022, organised by topics. This summary unequivocally shows that the efforts to encroach upon the limited space that remains for independent media have continued in all the areas we analysed. Emphasising some select areas of soft censorship, we will use articles published by Hungarian online newspapers to describe how the overall approach is applied.
The report demonstrates the challenges that fact-checking in Hungary must contend with. That is an especially vital issue because while Hungary is only one among many countries that are increasingly exposed to disinformation, the situation here is more challenging than in many of the other affected countries in that in Hungary, the pro-government media are among the most prominent purveyors of disinformation narratives. In many countries, fact-checking can be a potent tool in combatting disinformation. In Hungary, however, the work and success of fact-checkers are further encumbered by the low
level of trust in the media along with the high level of social polarisation.
The analysis of the media market clearly shows that after the 2022 national election, the pro-government media machine also felt compelled to confront the problem of decreasing funding. This swiftly led to layoffs and even the shutdown of some media in the aftermath of the election. The incumbent Orbán government’s fourth successive two-thirds legislative majority was apparently a message to pro-government media decision-makers that the ruling party’s dominance in public discourse is entrenched enough to allow for cost-effectiveness to be taken into consideration. State advertising spending continues to be the main instrument of market distortion. The low market share of independent media is also readily apparent from the data.
Looking at the way the media authority uses the system of radio frequency assignments, it becomes clear that the authority seeks to undermine market diversity. Radios operated by pro-government investors and churches are obviously favoured in the frequency competitions.
In a departure from the structure of the previous reports, we did not dedicate a separate chapter to the operation of the public service media in Hungary. One reason is that among the various segments of the media, the term “frozen” applies most obviously to the public service media. The organisational problems and the lack of transparency in funding have been amply documented in recent years, and we observed no changes whatsoever in these areas. Another reason why we did not include a distinct chapter on public service media in this report is that the researchers at Mérték recently published a study in a prestigious international academic journal in which they presented the disinformation practices of the public service media.1 We would recommend this article to our readers if they want to learn in greater detail about this particular area.
On the whole, our reports have tracked how an illiberal media system was created in an EU member. The current, most recent edition in the Soft Censorship series documents what this illiberal media system looks like in a state of – at least temporary – consolidation.
Full analysis: Mertek Booklets 36. The Frozen Media System
This study was drafted as part of the Hungarian Digital Media Observatory (HDMO) project. In the framework of the 30-month project, the researchers of Political Capital and Mérték Media Monitor studied the spread of disinformation and the efficacy of the measures taken against it; the journalists of the French news agency AFP and the Hungarian online news site Lakmusz performed fact-checking; the staff of the Idea Foundation held trainings about conscious media consumption; while Epresspack provided the digital infrastructure for the HDMO. Just as the project’s first phase, the second phase was also co-financed by the European Commission. The members of the HDMO’s consortium, which enjoys full independence in all of its activities, were selected in an open competition by the European Commission.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.