On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of his paper, Népszava chief editor Péter Németh was interviewed by the Foundation for Transparent Journalism (Transzparens Újságírásért Alapítvány). In the discussion, he revealed some information that goes against the narrative about Hungary usually propagated in the West.

Németh claimed that government advertising is such a big part of his newspaper’s revenue that it likely would have to shut down without it.

He expressed some lamentation over the fact they are thus they forced to run these ads, which their left-wing reader base often complains about.

It is quite interesting that the current Fidesz government, which is often criticised heavily in the West for allegedly using authoritarian methods to control the flow of information in the country, is obviously sparing funds to a newspaper highly critical of them. And yet, even Németh concurred that his news and editorial staff have total freedom to publish whatever they feel fit. Here’s how he described the situation:

‘One thing is for sure: it is vital for us to have a newspaper. Therefore, until we can write about what and how we want in exchange for these government ads, we have to accept them in order to survive. That is the case regardless of the fact that we, as a social-democratic paper, cannot identify with these messages; and despite the fact that we have to fight about them with a significant fraction of our readers.’

According to the Népszava chief editor, about half of their total revenue is coming from actual sales, while the other half is from ads. In his estimation, the paper would be in danger of shutting down if the circulation dropped below 10,000.

Péter Németh is a devoutly left-wing political actor. During the Communist regime in the 1980s, he was an editor at Magyar Hírlap while also serving as a Communist Party secretary. Part of his duties at the time involved sending ‘public mood reports’ to the Party.

In his interview with the Foundation, he also talked about the start of his career as a sports journalist, his stint as the chief editor of the public television morning show Napkelte, and being the longest-serving chief editor in Népszava’s 150-year-long history.