The story of how Moscow attempted to expand the Russia Today state television network to Hungary, by setting up a Hungarian-language affiliate, is both strange and murky. What we know is that Moscow was interested in establishing a state propaganda media arm in Hungary and the strongest and perhaps first high profile supporter of this initiative was István Lovas, a […]
Ripost.hu is one of Hungary’s bottom of the barrel political tabloids: an online publication that specializes in seedy, politically motivated character assassinations against opponents of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party. Ripost is the publication that took a photograph completely out of context, in order to insinuate that Jobbik leader Gábor is a homosexual and participates in gay orgies. Earlier this spring, […]
CHIN Radio’s weekly Hungarian-language program had its final broadcast on Sunday, June 4th, 2017. The radio show has been a staple of the multicultural radio station’s programming for more than 13 years and was among the first multilingual broadcasts after CHIN FM 97.9 received its license to operate in Ottawa in late 2001. The weekly “Hungarian hour,” initially broadcast at […]
The liberal 444.hu website provided a very useful service in the first days of the new year: it created a map depicting just how extensively interests close to the governing Fidesz party control the most important publications in Hungary, namely the county-level and local dailies and weeklies. It’s worth noting that in Hungary, regional papers are much more widely read […]
One of Hungary’s national political weekly magazines, Figyelő, was bought by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s former adviser and government historian Mária Schmidt on Monday. While Ms. Schmidt promises to keep publishing the weekly, it is all but certain that the publication’s critical, independent voice will be gone. Figyelő will almost certainly follow the fate of the online publication Origo, or […]
On Tuesday, a company called OPIMUS PRESS Zrt announced that it has acquired Mediaworks, the Austrian-owned firm that published Hungary’s largest opposition daily, Népszabadság, which it shut down amidst international scandal just over two weeks ago. OPIMUS PRESS Zrt, part of the OPIMUS Group, is a firm affiliated with Lőrinc Mészáros, the billionare Fidesz mayor of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s […]
The Greens – European Free Alliance issued a statement on the demise of media freedom and pluralism in Hungary, after Népszabadság, Hungary’s largest print daily, was shut down last Saturday. The statement, written by MEPs Judith Sargentini and Benedek Jávor, notes that Népszabadság was closed without warning immediately after the paper published a cover page piece on Fidesz corruption, suggesting […]
Professor Stevan Harnad of the Université du Québec à Montréal and a founding member of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter, resigned as External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia), after Népszabadság, Hungary’s largest opposition daily newspaper, was shut down by the country’s repressive Orbán regime. Professor Harnad’s resignation follows that of the Dr. Thomas Jovin, of Max Planck […]
Vienna Capital Partners, the Austrian private equity investor, which owns the firm that published Hungary’s now defunct Népszabadság daily, seems to be providing such a stark example of corporate greed and irresponsibility that political foes and economic rivals from all across the spectrum are joining together in protest. Hungarian conservative publications, left-centre publications, a newspaper in Slovakia and even Hungary’s […]
On Saturday, Hungarians were shocked to discover that the publication of Népszabadság–the country’s largest circulation political daily newspaper–was suspended indefinitely. The paper, with a paid daily circulation of 38,000 copies, no longer appeared in print, it’s rich online archive of articles and its dynamic website are all gone, journalists and workers have all been locked out of their offices, their […]
