In early April, the Hungarian public media’s online news site, hirado.hu, introduced a fake news monitoring series. Two months have passed since the series was first launched, and this allows for sufficient time to take a detailed look at the techniques being deployed by the authors and editors of the series, how they try to […]
Since the amendment of the Criminal Code to include as a separate and severely punishable offence the dissemination of fake news about the coronavirus, the official handling of fake news-related matters by the authorities has been the subject of increased scrutiny. The recent detention of a man in connection with his online commentary is the […]
L’épidémie COVID-19 entraine essentiellement une crise sanitaire, mais avec des effets collatéraux qui sont déjà visibles. Tout d’abord l’émergence d’une crise économique mondiale qui s’est très vite installée, mais aussi dans certains pays, comme la Hongrie, une crise politique ou la survie d’un média indépendant est sérieusement menacée. L’article d’Ágnes Urbán nous le relate. L’épidémie […]
Above all, the coronavirus gives rise to a healthcare crisis. At the same time, the broader repercussions of the crisis in other areas have also began to manifest themselves. A global economic crisis is on the horizon, while in Hungary the very survival of the independent media is in serious danger. By Ágnes Urbán The […]
Observers of the Hungarian media situation have often remarked in recent years that it cannot get any worse. It was difficult to imagine that the state of democratic public sphere could deteriorate further in an EU member state. At the same time, however, our experience shows that there is no objective limit to how far […]
The Media Council’s nine-year term is about to expire and, theoretically, the new members of the body should have been elected by now. That has not happened, however. Effectively, Fidesz has sabotaged the process. Those in the governing party view compliance with the democratic ground rules as irrelevant. Their only goal in this context is […]
When the Central European Press and Media Foundation (abbreviated as KESMA in Hungarian) was created in November 2018, everyone was curious to find out how massive the ownership concentration in the market had become as a result of the emergence of such a huge conglomerate, and how strong the position of government-friendly media companies was […]
The end of 2018 saw the announcement of a striking bit of news: a government-owned Media Research Institute would be created in Hungary. For the time being, the main responsibilities of this institute remain unclear. There is reason for concern, however, that media research will join a long list of areas where the state’s role […]
For many years now, Fidesz has funded its propaganda media with state resources, thereby ruining competition and distorting the entire Hungarian public discourse. Mérték Média Monitor, a Hungarian media watchdog organisation, the critical radio station Klubrádió and MEP Jávor Benedek have jointly turned to the European Commission with a complaint which demonstrates in detail how […]
The expensively operating public service media in Hungary fail to perform their actual public service functions. What they actually do is to ruin the media market while they sell themselves to the government as a propaganda mouthpiece. Funding for public service media can be curbed and made to comply with EU rules by drawing on […]