The Day After: Hungary's Media Meltdown

This is actually like an obituary ...

After the general elections on 8 April 2018, what happened in Hungary turned out to be a total surprise. And not a pleasant one at all—especially for the media. 

First, the 80-year-old newspaper Magyar Nemzet (ironically meaning 'Hungarian People') was shut down; then the related Lanchid Radio and weekly news magazine Heti Valaszt. Magyar Nemzet was a conservative, right-wing daily, but it was critical of the Fidesz government.

They were all from the group of businessman Lajos Simicska, a former friend and ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. As Simicska parted ways with PM Orbán, his media group became increasingly vocal about criticising the government. But, one way or the other, Magyar Nemzet was an institution:

In an opinion piece published in the last issue of Magyar Nemzet, both on the front page of the paper itself and online, Tibor Pethő, grandson of the newspaperʼs founder Sándor Pethő, recalled that Magyar Nemzet had been silenced twice before: in March 1944, when the Gestapo shut it down with the arrival of German forces, and in November 1956, when Russian troops arrived to crush Hungaryʼs Uprising.

Pethő also added:

"We will not fall silent ... We wait, we hope, and we pray. Because whoever is the owner of a newspaper, we know full well that our true 'owner' is the reader. And we cannot let them down."

But, some venues do fall silent.

This article is the farewell 'publication piece' from the Budapest Beacon, an English news site about Hungarian affairs. It was an independent site providing insight to politics in Hungary and beyond. What is happening to Hungary is happening in many other places, with slight variations.

Budapest Beacon may have been reserved for expats in Hungary and Hungary enthusiasts alone, but this interview with its managing editor, Richard Field, provides us clues about prospects faced by the independent media all around the globe.