Hungary media revamped after Orban, but bias concerns remain

Six months after Peter Magyar's election victory ended Viktor Orban's 16 years in power, Hungary's media landscape is being reshaped. Under Orban, Reporters Without Borders ranked Hungary among the worst EU countries for press freedom. Orban and his allies were estimated to control directly or indirectly around 80% of the media. The new Prime Minister promised sweeping press reforms, including suspending state media news until conditions for objective and impartial reporting were in place.

Public service radio and television news was closed for 44 days in July so it could be revamped. Some old journalists who had been loyal to the governing party were removed. Others came in and the services were relaunched. A correspondent who has followed the changes said the morning radio programme and evening news are now a vast improvement. The coverage is holding the new government to account, bringing on opposition politicians and independent experts, the correspondent said. The correspondent also said the public service media has not become a mouthpiece of the new government.

One measure of change comes from a survey by the Republican Institute. It found that in the same week in September last year, 88% of programming on evening television news was dedicated to politics. That has now shrunk to 55%, leaving more space for other issues. Public opinion surveys suggest people are broadly pleased with the changes. But the shift has also caused stress. Hungarians had grown used to media that parroted government messages, and some, especially older generations, find proper debate uncomfortable. The correspondent noted that during the communist era there was only one side, and people became used to news washing over them.

The new Prime Minister is a sometimes abrasive personality and is not shy of criticising individual journalists. No systems are in place to ensure that his perspective or that of his allies is prioritised through the new media system, the correspondent said. A current scandal has added pressure on the government. Photographs have emerged of a senior official in the environment ministry shooting lions and elephants in Africa, and there are calls for him to be sacked.

Under Orban, influence went beyond public service media. Bullet points were issued to public service radio and television at the start of the week. Just under 500 commercial media titles were rolled together as part of the Fidesz media empire, according to the account. Short one-minute news slots on music radio and sports programmes, including World Cup coverage, were heavily biased and gave little chance to opposition politicians or independent experts. Independent journalists survived, but struggled financially. They could not get advertising from state companies and often not from private companies, including big German or other foreign firms that did not want to upset the government. Many shifted to subscription models. Independent media sometimes became something like opposition media in the absence of a strong parliamentary opposition.