Hungary shuts down Orban's lie factory

For years, they acted as government mouthpieces, using their wide reach into homes across Hungary to bolster Viktor Orbán and demonize those he portrayed as enemies, from philanthropist George Soros to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

But today, May 9, as the swearing-in of Péter Magyar officially marks the end of Orbán's 16 years in power, the country's once-powerful state media faces the possibility of being shut down.

“Everyone is afraid. How far will this purge go? And to what extent?” one state radio employee told The Guardian. “No one knows what will happen,” said another.

It is a foreshadowing of the broad transformation expected as the Hungarian and his Tisza party take power after winning a supermajority in last month’s elections. For the country’s media, it is a particularly difficult task – one that is likely to be watched around the world as other countries grapple with far-right movements seeking to emulate Orban.

Since coming to power in 2010, Orban and his Fidesz party have reshaped the country's media to promote themselves and demonize opponents, leading to a sharp decline in media freedom rankings and leaving large parts of the country living in an alternative reality.

“From America or Western Europe, it may be very difficult to imagine what the propaganda and state machinery look like here,” the Hungarian told The Associated Press in July 2024. “This parallel reality is like the Truman Show. People believe it is reality.”

The Hungarian, who was vilified by state media during the campaign as a puppet of Brussels, an absent father and a traitor, immediately after the election promised to suspend the work of state media, describing them as a "factory of lies" whose reporting resembles propaganda from North Korea and Nazi-era Germany.

Although he has not imprisoned or killed a single journalist, the predator of media freedom, Viktor Orban, has all but wiped out Hungarian independent journalism.

He said his government would seek to adopt a new media law and establish a media body that would allow state-owned media to resume operations under better conditions and "to truly do what they are meant to do."

The result is an unprecedented opportunity for Hungary to confront the failures of its past, said Gabor Poljak, a professor of media law and politics at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. “This is our best chance in the history of Hungary.”

Under Orbán, the media developed along two parallel tracks: an estimated 80 percent was controlled by Fidesz loyalists, including state-owned media and private media outlets, whose loyalty was richly rewarded with state subsidies and advertising; in contrast were independent media outlets, which had long struggled to survive while fending off a constant barrage of Fidesz-linked attacks – from smear campaigns to bureaucratic obstacles designed to take up their time and resources.

That strategy has been spectacularly successful, Reporters Without Borders said earlier this year. “While he has not imprisoned or killed a single journalist, the predator of media freedom, Viktor Orbán, has all but wiped out independent journalism in Hungary,” said Director General Thibaut Bruten.

Despite this, the recent elections have shown the resilience of independent media, which have continued, against all odds, to report on the accusations of corruption and clientelism that have been piling up around Fidesz. “In recent months, independent journalists have been the actors who really brought down the Orbán regime,” Poljak said.

He described it as a perfect storm. As Hungarians faced skyrocketing living costs and the collapse of social services, many were more open to the sharp, uncompromising reporting practiced by most independent journalists.

As journalists exposed scandal after scandal - from zebras imported by Orban's top brass to his government's servile tone towards Moscow - the Hungarian wove their revelations into his campaign as he toured 700 towns and villages over two years, bringing it to an audience that rarely heard anything but Fidesz-tailored messages on local news.

Several private media companies affiliated with Fidesz are expected to survive the change of government, as they remain popular, Poljak said. “But in the end it will be a smaller empire,” he said. “And whether they will remain loyal to Orban also depends on his position. It is not clear what will happen to Fidesz and what will happen to Orban himself.”

However, the elections exposed a willingness for change in some quarters. A few days after the Hungarian victory, more than 90 journalists from MTI, the state-run news agency that is among the oldest in the world, signed a letter demanding the return of “editorial autonomy.”

As Kristina Balog, who worked in state media from 2016 to 2018, put it: “Public media did not serve to inform - they served to construct narratives.”

She often saw scripts being submitted in advance for live broadcasts of state events, with government-approved guidelines on what could and could not be said. “Editors were instructed to use certain keywords: migrant, Brussels, terrorism,” she said. “The stories were taken apart and rewritten to fit the government narrative.”

The goal was simple: to instill fear, she said. “Instead of teaching people to think, they conditioned them to react with fear, hatred, suspicion. And millions believed they were watching real news.”

There has been a lot of tension among state media employees since Magyars’ landslide victory. “Honestly, what Magyars said was very vague. Shutting down state media. What does that mean?” said one MTI employee, who asked to remain anonymous. “But what I see is that everyone, regardless of political beliefs, hopes that we will have a normal, impartial news service.”

Many who work in state media have stayed there for years, enduring blatant government interference because they felt they had few other options, said one employee at a state radio station.

Instead of teaching people to think, they conditioned them to react with fear, hatred, suspicion. And millions believed they were watching real news.

Those who left often felt firsthand how far Fidesz's hand reaches, she added. "They persecuted them to make sure they couldn't find work. They completely broke people."

Years of propaganda mean Hungary now faces a huge task that goes beyond simply restoring media freedom, said Balog, who worked in state-run media. “What remains is the unprocessed trauma: a system of lies, constant manipulation and fear-based communication that has left deep scars.”

For the wider world, it was a warning about what remains when the media is put at the service of political goals. “Recovery will require time and a deliberate social effort – strengthening media literacy, critical thinking and the ability to distinguish information from propaganda,” Balog said. “The key question is not only what kind of media system will emerge, but also whether there will be a genuine social need for the truth.”

Prepared by: A. Š.