Hungarian Conservative

The overwhelming majority of Hungarians support transparency in the foreign funding of media outlets. Recently, there has been an increase in foreign attempts to interfere in Hungarian domestic politics, with the media being a primary target. In response, the government established the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty. This move, however, could prompt Brussels to penalize the country with another rule of law mechanism.

MP Fekete-Győr was convicted of assault on a public official, for throwing a smoke grenade at police officers at a 2018 protest. István Hollik of the ruling Fidesz party has called on him to resign, which he is refusing to do.

The statement denouncing the law on the protection of national sovereignty alleges that it potentially restricts press freedom, by threatening the operation of and intimidating the ‘independent’ media.

The new Task Force set up by the Finance Ministry has been portrayed as a sign of austerity measures to come by the opposition media, however, the Ministry has debunked these speculations in a press release. In their statement, the Ministry assures the people of Hungary that family support schemes and the utility price cap will remain in place.

Gergely Karácsony’s 99 Movement received over 650 million HUF in funding, mostly after they went inactive with the Budapest Mayor dropping out of the primary race for prime minister. The organisation claims that the bulk of its revenue came from ‘microdonations’ collected in cash in drop-boxes at live events. However, even opposition media admit that this is more than unrealistic given the large sum, and the fact that much of it came in foreign currencies.

The fact that it is government funding that keeps an opposition paper afloat flies in the face of the typical Western narrative that in Hungary, press freedom is suppressed through authoritarian methods.