HUNGARY: State-funded film attacks CSOs and media
On 17 February 2026, Hungarian public television broadcast a 60-minute “documentary film” called Mi vagyunk a világ (We Are The World). The film was commissioned by Fidesz’s parliamentary faction and paid for with approximately 363 million HUF (around €900,000) of public money. Its central claim was that a network of Hungarian CSOs and independent media outlets were secretly funded by the United States to influence Hungarian politics.
The film included a visualised “network” diagram naming organisations and using their logos. CSOs, such as the migrant’s right organisation Menedék, LGBTQI+ organisations Háttér Society and Budapest Pride, human rights organisations Amnesty International Hungary, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, as well as independent media outlets including Telex, 444.hu, Direkt36 and Átlátszó appeared in this diagram. One of the film’s three main speakers was the Director of the Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO), a government body established to investigate alleged foreign influence. A subsequent media investigation revealed that the courts had already found that SPO had published false information about at least one of the independent media outlets mentioned in the film. Using public funds to produce and broadcast a film targeting independent civil society and media and publicly naming and associating them with foreign political influence, the film adds to existing stigma undermines public trust in their work.
CSOs report that the film has already had concrete negative consequences. For example, for Menedék, it led to reputational damage and practical difficulties with their office rental as a result of being publicly portrayed as part of an alleged foreign influence network. Neighbours in Menedék’s office building refused to agree to the renewal of its rental contract and brought the matter to the building’s residents’ board in an attempt to force the organisation out. In addition, schools that had previously invited Menedék to do educational workshops have stopped doing so without providing formal explanations, while government bodies and local councils have become increasingly reluctant to enter into formal partnerships with the organisation. Some donors who support Menedék financially have requested not to have their names publicly associated with the organisation, indicating that being publicly linked to a migrants’ rights organisation in Hungary is increasingly perceived as a reputational risk.