An Attack on Freedom of the Press
The Fidesz Government’s Media Policy
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
What rulers think is betrayed by their attitude towards freedom of the press. Viktor Orbán and his government leave no doubt as to their position. They have terminated the constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press. A new media authority not only regulates the media market, but is to supervise and sanction the media with regard to content. In a move unprecedented for a democracy, the media law threatens freedom of the press. 900 journalists were dismissed from public broadcasters. That was a political purge. Under the Fidesz government something unexpected has happened. A state monopoly of opinion has been restored, something that seemed to have been overcome in 1989.
(Osteuropa 12/2011, pp. 157–166)