Press Freedom Index lists Hungary as “problematic”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published its Press Freedom Index for 2018  and it lists the state of media freedom in Hungary as being “problematic.” Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are deemed to have a healthier free press than Hungary. Out of 180 countries, Hungary is number 73–falling back two place since last year in its global score. RSF writes:

“Businessmen with close ties to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party, Fidesz, not only managed to acquire new media outlets in 2017 but also to replace foreign media companies that had invested in Hungary’s media. Their biggest success was getting control of the last three regional daily newspapers in the summer. Nevertheless, the Hungarian media landscape is still varied, and both print and online outlets do not hesitate to publish investigative coverage of alleged corruption involving top Fidesz and government officials. Two media bubbles co-exist in Hungary. One, created by pro-government and pro-Fidesz media outlets, is obsessed with migration, the “defence of Hungary and its borders” and its hate campaign against the Hungarian-American billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The other is focused on finding corruption scandals. The survival of media outlets critical of the government is due largely to former Orbán donor Lajos Simicska, who broke publicly with the prime minister in February 2015 and continues to fund a media empire originally created to support Fidesz. The government and its business allies now have their sights turned on two media outlets in particular, the leading commercial TV channel RTL Klub and the leading political news website Index.hu. Both are critical of the government.”

After 80 years, the Magyar Nemzet daily ceased publication on 11 April 2018.

RSF lists Norway as the country with the most press freedom, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Jamaica, Belgium and New Zealand. Canada is number 18, one place behind Luxembourg, but directly ahead of Australia. The United States is much further behind, at number 45. As we mentioned, Hungary comes in at number 73–immediately ahead is Croatia, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Mauritania. The press situation in a handful of European countries, however is worse than in Hungary–notably in Greece, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Moldova and Ukraine.

Yet anyone who has followed Hungary’s development post-1989 (and even those who know about Goulash Communism before the change in regime) will be acutely aware of the fact that Hungarians did not aspire to be compared to these countries or societies, when it comes to levels of development and freedoms.  In the nineties, Hungary justifiably saw itself as more developed, democratic and certainly more free than most of these countries. The Press Freedom Index is just the most recent indication of how the tables have turned.

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