Hungarian PM’s grip on media tightens as leftist publisher sold

A company with links to a close ally of Hungary’s prime minister

Viktor Orban

has bought the publisher of a recently closed opposition newspaper, increasing concern over growing government domination of the country’s media.

Holding company the Opimus Group acquired Mediaworks barely a fortnight after the publisher shut down Nepszabadsag, a major leftist newspaper that was a staunch critic of the populist Mr Orban and regularly exposed alleged corruption among his inner circle.

Analysts say senior figures at Opimus have close connections to Lorinc Meszaros, a former gas-fitter who is now both mayor of Mr Orban’s hometown of Felcsut and a wealthy businessman whose firms have benefited from state contracts.

The takeover gives Opimus control not only of Nepszabadsag, but of a major sports newspaper, a business daily and 12 regional publications that reach many provincial readers who are otherwise not major consumers of news.

"The suspension and sale of Nepszabadsag show the government's growing influence over Hungary's media," said Robert Herman, vice president for international programmes at US-based media watchdog Freedom House.

"Hungary's government uses ownership as a political tool to silence critical coverage. The EU and the United States should forcefully condemn this attack on the press," he added.

A US State Department spokesman said recently that Washington "shares the concerns of global press freedom advocates, international organisations, and Hungarian citizens, over the steady decline of media freedom in Hungary".

Government-friendly agencies

Mr Orban has tightened his grip on Hungary’s news outlets in recent years, as his allies have secured control of broadcasters and publications, and the media sector as a whole has come to rely on advertising acquired through government-friendly agencies.

The EU has also expressed concern over media diversity in Hungary, having repeatedly clashed with Mr Orban on a range of issues, most recently his pledge to block any plan to distribute refugees among member states.

Bulcsu Hunyadi, a senior analyst at the Political Capital think tank in Budapest, said there was little the EU could do to prevent businessmen loyal to Mr Orban establishing a stranglehold on Hungarian media.

“It is legally hard to find problems with it, because they are private actors – of course they are linked to the government very closely, but it is very hard to prove,” Mr Hunyadi said.

“It is not the government or media authority censoring content, but rather it is through ownership structures that the government controls media content.”

Nepszabadsag was closed without warning on October 8th, when its staff found themselves locked out of their office and the website was shut down.

Mediaworks called it a result of the newspaper’s poor financial performance, but its journalists described it as punishment the for their critical reporting of Mr Orban and his allies.