While the Hungarian government is very sensitive to its own sovereignty, it has also been running serious advertising campaigns in Slovakia and Poland, among others, during the elections there. Direkt36 analyzed the available data on the Hungarian government’s advertising campaign targeting seven countries.

We have revealed where the money comes from for Cecília Rogán-Gaál’s tabloid’s publishing house

Index had long been a primary target for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s media crackdown. The final assault came in the disguise of a business maneuver and now the site is part of the government’s powerful media machinery.

For some time now, all government proposals land on PM Orbán’s desk with green, yellow, or red post-its. People with inside knowledge about the election strategy of Fidesz described the ruling party’s campaign strategy for the 2022 parliamentary elections and its conscious use of social media.

Documents obtained by Direkt36 show how the government dictates the news at Hungarian state news agency MTI. Self-censorship also plays a crucial role in shaping the content of MTI.

According to internal letters obtained by Direkt36, one of Viktor Orbán’s closest colleagues once dictated a piece of news to the Hungarian Telegraph Office. There is also a separate instruction that not only the ministry’s announcements must be published practically verbatim, but also the statements of Lőrinc Mészáros’s group of companies.

A Hungarian businessman close to the government has expanded his media empire to the Balkans. However, a high-value contract between his Slovenian and North Macedonian companies raised the attention of local authorities.

How the news industry’s crisis, the power games of influential businessmen, and the politically motivated redrawing of Hungary’s media landscape led to the death of the emblematic newspaper.