Article originally published by Tony Wesolowsky for RFE/RL on 10 October 2020
Observers and government critics say Hungarian media outlets have been muzzled under Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Now, they are warning that the country could lose one of its last independent voices.
Media regulators in the Central European nation have refused to automatically extend the broadcast license of Klubradio, whose hard-hitting reporting is sometimes critical of Orban’s government, and plan to auction off the frequency when it expires in February 2021.
Klubradio has vowed to fight the September decision by Hungary’s Media Council, which drew criticism from global freedom-support watchdogs groups including the Council of Europe and the International Press Institute (IPI).
“The Media Council’s decision rejecting Klubradio’s renewal shows that Viktor Orban is on a path to eradicate what remains of Hungary’s independent press,” IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said in a September 11 statement. “The European Union claims that press freedom and fair market competition are among its core values, yet it has so far failed to defend these values in Hungary.”
Over the past 10 years, Orban’s government has taken direct or indirect control of most of the country’s media outlets.
Since 2010, Hungary’s public television and radio stations and the state news agency have gradually come under much tighter political control than under previous governments.
In 2019, about 500 private media outlets were concentrated into the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), which has close ties to the Orban government.
Hungary suffered a 16-point plunge, to 89th place, in Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
One of the few remaining independent television stations in Hungary is the foreign-owned commercial broadcaster RTL Klub, whose evening news broadcast includes reporting critical of the government.
Separately, in the realm of radio, Klubradio has been broadcasting in its current news-and-talk format since 2001. It thrived under Socialist-led governments until 2010, when Orban, who was also prime minister in 1998-2002, returned to power.
Critical Coverage
Its critical coverage has made the station a target of his government. The station has gradually been stripped of its frequencies outside Budapest. Now it is heard in the capital and surrounding areas, as well as online.
Its broadcast reach may have shrunk, but its influence has remained strong.
A 2018 survey by Mertek Media Monitor, an independent media watchdog, found that more people said they turned to Klubradio for news than to any of the daily newspapers with national reach.
When its last license expired in February 2011, the Media Council refused to extend it for two years despite three court rulings in Klubradio’s favor.
Amid a grassroots campaign launched by thousands of listeners, the Media Council finally awarded the station a seven-year broadcasting license in March 2013.
In its September 11 ruling, the Media Council said that over the past seven years Klubradio had repeatedly violated the country’s media law by failing to provide information about its programming content.
The Media Council also declared the station’s 92.9 FM frequency “will again be open for bidding.” In other words, Klubradio’s broadcasting license will not be automatically renewed next year, and the station will have to compete with others to retain its place on the dial.
Klubradio was defiant.
“In its decision published today, the Media Council justifies its decision by several violations of the Media Act. This statement, in the opinion of Klubradio, does not correspond to reality,” it said in a statement at the time. “The leaders and employees of Klubradio are looking for legal and other means in order to ensure that Hungary’s last independent radio, which authentically informs hundreds of thousands of people every day, is not muted.”
The Media Council is dominated by members of the ruling Fidesz party. Observers say the council has played a key role in diminishing media diversity in Hungary in recent years by interpreting the law to allow Fidesz and KESMA to gradually grab a greater share of the country’s media market.