The events at the staff meeting and the subsequent scene in the cafeteria clearly demonstrated the tensions that had developed on Kunigunda Street in the period following April 12.<\/p>\n
Over the past few months, Direkt36 has spoken with more than ten employees\u2014who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation\u2014about what unfolded in the public service media during the weeks beginning with the elections and leading up to the July blackout, and how they are coming to terms with the years they spent within the propaganda machine.<\/p>\n
It emerged from the conversations that in the days following the election, several public service media employees\u2014depending on their current party allegiances\u2014turned on one another. Although many experienced the end of direct control\u2014which happened almost overnight\u2014as a liberation, they are now forced to confront the pressing question: if the propaganda-like operations bothered them, why didn\u2019t they quit? The transition to working according to professional standards is not going smoothly either; many lack the necessary skills, or find it intimidating that they must take responsibility for the content they produce.<\/p>\n
We posed several questions regarding the article\u2019s content to the public service media\u2019s press office, which repeatedly stated: \u201cAnswering this question is the responsibility of the public service media\u2019s former leadership.\u201d We also contacted former news director Zsolt N\u00e9meth, but he has not yet responded to our questions. Those involved in the argument that took place at the cafeteria, including Cs\u00e1sz\u00e1r, did not wish to to comment.<\/p>\n
Chapter I: Internal Tension<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"Orb\u00e1n](\"https:\/\/direkt36-hu.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/nemeth-800x528.jpg\")
Viktor Orb\u00e1n Acknowledges Election Defeat \u2013 Source: Szil\u00e1rd N\u00e9meth\u2019s Facebook page<\/p><\/div>\n
One of the most memorable moments of election night was when Viktor Orb\u00e1n acknowledged his party\u2019s defeat in a brief speech at Fidesz\u2019s election HQ and bid his supporters good night. Shortly afterward, the crowd that had gathered to await the results quickly dispersed.<\/p>\n
Something similar happened at Kunigunda Street as well. After Orb\u00e1n\u2019s announcement, the executives vanished \u00a0from the public service television station. They didn\u2019t even wait for the broadcast to end. Finally, a lower-ranking employee\u2014a simple editor\u2014thanked those present for their work. \u201cWe can take it to mean that we\u2019ve been let go, \u201d said one public service media employee.<\/p>\n
Some of the staff members cried in grief that evening, while others were confused and didn\u2019t know how to make sense of what had happened. According to one editor, the reason for this was that many had not realistically assessed the election odds, so Tisza\u2019s landslide victory came as a shock to them.<\/p>\n
Even in the days following the election, strong emotions continued to run high among employees sympathetic to Fidesz. There was one anchor who was so disheartened by Fidesz\u2019s defeat that he decided he no longer wanted to appear on screen and instead withdrew to the background.<\/p>\n
There were also instances of criticism in the hallways directed at Tisza\u2019s president, P\u00e9ter Magyar, who was elected prime minister in the days that followed. \u201cThere are colleagues of mine who call P\u00e9ter Magyar a \u2018faggot.\u2019 That\u2019s how they refer to him in private conversations, making no secret of their antipathy,\u201d said a source working in the public service media\u2019s online division.<\/p>\n
However, there were also many who were characterized by hopeful anticipation. They were confident that under the Tisza government, public service media might regain some of its independence.<\/p>\n
Some were already preparing for Tisza\u2019s victory by changing their behavior before the election. According to an MTI source, these included, for example, some deputy editors-in-chief who had served as enforcers of censorship at the state news agency during the Orb\u00e1n government. As long as the previous system lasted, they \u201ccasually discarded material,\u201d the source noted, referring to how these mid-level managers had blocked numerous news stories. Their attitude was, \u201cThis cushy job is good for me; I don\u2019t care about my conscience,\u201d the source said of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it became clear that Tisza was going to win, their attitude started to change a bit. They began to be more affable, not so arrogant,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the days following the election, Fidesz supporters and those celebrating Tisza\u2019s victory clashed with one another on several occasions.<\/p>\n
News Director Zsolt N\u00e9meth himself brought this up at the staff meeting on the afternoon of April 15: people need to be able to get through the coming period side by side\u2014both those who are happy and those who are sad. Or, if they can\u2019t, they should take time off. \u201cI think that even in a less civilized community, it\u2019s not appropriate for colleagues to turn into enemies in a quarter of an hour or 20 minutes, when they\u2019ve been working together for 10, 15, or 20 years,\u201d Telex quoted N\u00e9meth as saying, based on an audio recording it obtained.<\/p>\n
According to one participant in the staff meeting, N\u00e9meth\u2019s remarks essentially boiled down to this:<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople started teasing each other, saying, \u2018They\u2019re going to fire you,\u2019 or \u2018No, they\u2019re going to fire you.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course, the tension didn\u2019t disappear at the push of a button, but the employees\u2019 attention was increasingly drawn to other issues.<\/p>\n
Chapter II: Censorship Comes to an End<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"Magyar](\"https:\/\/direkt36-hu.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MP-Kossuth-radioa-800x526.jpeg\")
P\u00e9ter Magyar in the Public Service Media \u2013 Source: P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s Facebook page<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cAccording to The Guardian, private planes are transporting the assets of those who grew wealthy under the Orb\u00e1n government out of Vienna\u201d\u2014this was the headline of an MTI piece published on Sunday, April 26, at 9:37 p.m.<\/p>\n
The state news agency examined a report by the British daily that had sparked significant controversy. The report claimed that members of a business circle close to Orb\u00e1n were attempting to move the wealth they had accumulated during the Fidesz government\u2019s tenure abroad.<\/p>\n
The press review was intended as a sort of test: if this could reach the public, then censorship would truly be over, and anything could be written in MTI. The test was successful. The press review was published and was subsequently picked up by several independent news sites. Moreover, the MTI news story about this was not edited afterward, and the author did not face any reprisals.<\/p>\n
This was considered a significant step forward, because even just a few weeks earlier, there were still signs of censorship at MTI. This happened, for example, during P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s appearances on public service media on April 15. Although Antal Rog\u00e1n\u2019s name was mentioned during the live broadcast, and the first draft of the MTI news story covering the interview also mentioned the former minister, his name was subsequently removed from the text. \u201cIt was completely nonsensical and also extremely humiliating,\u201d said an MTI source, who added that he and his colleagues only noticed the omission after the story had already been published.<\/p>\n
The gloomy mood was further worsened when News Director Zsolt N\u00e9meth dismissed their concerns during a staff meeting later that day.<\/p>\n
Infuriated, employees drafted \u00a0a \u00a0letter\u2014which became infamous as the \u201cPeasants\u2019 Uprising\u201d\u2014demanding the restoration of their editorial autonomy.<\/p>\n
With a few exceptions, most MTI employees added their names to the letter, gathering about a hundred signatures. Some of those who stayed away feared for their livelihoods, while others opposed the move because of their sympathy for Fidesz. According to sources familiar with the events, one of the latter even mocked the letter, while another colleague noted: \u00a0\u201cuntil now, there has been free journalism at MTI, and now oppression and occupation by the liberals are coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
The email got its name because it was sent with the subject line \u201cPeasant Uprising\u201d to the heads of public service media, including D\u00e1niel Papp\u2014who had become known as a purveyor of fake news\u2014the then-CEO of MTVA. The letter demanded that MTI\u2019s \u201cindependent, impartial, and professionally grounded news service\u201d be restored immediately and that N\u00e9meth\u2019s supervisory authority be revoked.<\/p>\n
Management issued a diplomatic, neutral response calling for patience, but the letter caused a stir among the public. The document was leaked to the press that very same day, prompting many on social media to criticize MTI employees, asking them why they hadn\u2019t taken action sooner and why they had waited until now to protest.<\/p>\n
Several MTI employees claim that they tried to take a stand against political censorship on an individual level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to push the boundaries; I sometimes spoke up, there was a bit of shouting from time to time, and there were times when I was afraid I\u2019d be fired\u2014but then they didn\u2019t fire me after all,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
said an MTI employee covering foreign policy. And there were attempts at rebellion at the community level as well; for example, in 2012, an open letter was written \u201cto restore MTI\u2019s professional and organizational independence,\u201d but it amounted to nothing more than a cry in the wilderness.<\/p>\n
The news agency plays a unique role in the Hungarian public sphere. Thanks to their extensive network of correspondents, they supply news content to most Hungarian newsrooms. Although MTI has also become part of the Fidesz propaganda machine, it has nonetheless functioned as a sort of enclave within the public service media.<\/p>\n
While M1, for example, has seen a significant turnover in staff in recent years, at MTI\u2014despite painful layoffs and voluntary departures\u2014the majority of the staff has remained the same. At the beginning of the Fidesz government\u2019s tenure, there were attempts at rebellion; on several occasions, they defiantly wrote news stories even when they knew their superiors would not publish them due to self-censorship. Most employees resented that the news agency\u2014founded in 1881 and having survived two world wars and a regime change\u2014had lost its independence and been absorbed into a state media conglomerate, which many employees referred to as a \u201cmonstrosity.\u201d \u201cI never thought of myself as working in public service media. I\u2019m an MTI employee,\u201d said one of them.<\/p>\n
One result of this frustration was that, behind the scenes, written evidence of censorship, manipulation, and direct control had been collected for more than ten years. The group, calling itself the Pro Domo Task Force, approached the new leadership of public service media this summer and handed over a 482-page document. The sheer size of this collection\u2014consisting mainly of internal correspondence\u2014was a surprise, but the existence of such incriminating material was already known; some of it had already been reported on by Direkt36 in a 2022 series of articles.<\/p>\n
Despite these efforts, many are forced to face the question: if they were bothered by the fact that they couldn\u2019t work with integrity in the public service media, why did they stay there?<\/p>\n
Beyond mere fears about making a living, various explanations have emerged for this moral dilemma. We spoke with an MTI employee who explained that he stayed out of a sense of professional duty. \u201cYou do your job even when conditions are very bad, just like a doctor,\u201d he said. In his view, since the tricks of the trade in news agency journalism aren\u2019t taught anywhere\u2014they can only be learned from colleagues\u2014if all the experienced staff had walked out, there would have been no one left to pass on that knowledge to the younger generation once they could work freely again. Another factor that contributed to his decision to stay was that he had always expected the Orb\u00e1n regime to collapse at any moment.<\/p>\n
Many compared themselves to a frog that boils to death in slowly heating water instead of jumping out. And many viewed the takeover of public service media as a kind of occupation, which led them to conclude, \u201cWe were here first; they should leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some cases, it was easier to stay on if one focused solely on one\u2019s own work. \u201cYou won\u2019t find any articles that I wrote and didn\u2019t take responsibility for. I\u2019ve always tried to be fair to everyone,\u201d said an MTI employee who writes primarily about culture, though he also struggles with the fact that he was there during those 16 years\u2014a period that, incidentally, caused him constant frustration. \u201cThere were many times when I wasn\u2019t proud of myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Others are also wrestling with their consciences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take me a long time to come to terms with why I stayed there until now. I don\u2019t have any unsavory political material, but I still worked there and contributed to the work,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
said one of MTVA\u2019s television staff members.<\/p>\n
Viktor Orb\u00e1n Acknowledges Election Defeat \u2013 Source: Szil\u00e1rd N\u00e9meth\u2019s Facebook page<\/p><\/div>\n
One of the most memorable moments of election night was when Viktor Orb\u00e1n acknowledged his party\u2019s defeat in a brief speech at Fidesz\u2019s election HQ and bid his supporters good night. Shortly afterward, the crowd that had gathered to await the results quickly dispersed.<\/p>\n
Something similar happened at Kunigunda Street as well. After Orb\u00e1n\u2019s announcement, the executives vanished \u00a0from the public service television station. They didn\u2019t even wait for the broadcast to end. Finally, a lower-ranking employee\u2014a simple editor\u2014thanked those present for their work. \u201cWe can take it to mean that we\u2019ve been let go, \u201d said one public service media employee.<\/p>\n
Some of the staff members cried in grief that evening, while others were confused and didn\u2019t know how to make sense of what had happened. According to one editor, the reason for this was that many had not realistically assessed the election odds, so Tisza\u2019s landslide victory came as a shock to them.<\/p>\n
Even in the days following the election, strong emotions continued to run high among employees sympathetic to Fidesz. There was one anchor who was so disheartened by Fidesz\u2019s defeat that he decided he no longer wanted to appear on screen and instead withdrew to the background.<\/p>\n
There were also instances of criticism in the hallways directed at Tisza\u2019s president, P\u00e9ter Magyar, who was elected prime minister in the days that followed. \u201cThere are colleagues of mine who call P\u00e9ter Magyar a \u2018faggot.\u2019 That\u2019s how they refer to him in private conversations, making no secret of their antipathy,\u201d said a source working in the public service media\u2019s online division.<\/p>\n
However, there were also many who were characterized by hopeful anticipation. They were confident that under the Tisza government, public service media might regain some of its independence.<\/p>\n
Some were already preparing for Tisza\u2019s victory by changing their behavior before the election. According to an MTI source, these included, for example, some deputy editors-in-chief who had served as enforcers of censorship at the state news agency during the Orb\u00e1n government. As long as the previous system lasted, they \u201ccasually discarded material,\u201d the source noted, referring to how these mid-level managers had blocked numerous news stories. Their attitude was, \u201cThis cushy job is good for me; I don\u2019t care about my conscience,\u201d the source said of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it became clear that Tisza was going to win, their attitude started to change a bit. They began to be more affable, not so arrogant,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the days following the election, Fidesz supporters and those celebrating Tisza\u2019s victory clashed with one another on several occasions.<\/p>\n
News Director Zsolt N\u00e9meth himself brought this up at the staff meeting on the afternoon of April 15: people need to be able to get through the coming period side by side\u2014both those who are happy and those who are sad. Or, if they can\u2019t, they should take time off. \u201cI think that even in a less civilized community, it\u2019s not appropriate for colleagues to turn into enemies in a quarter of an hour or 20 minutes, when they\u2019ve been working together for 10, 15, or 20 years,\u201d Telex quoted N\u00e9meth as saying, based on an audio recording it obtained.<\/p>\n
According to one participant in the staff meeting, N\u00e9meth\u2019s remarks essentially boiled down to this:<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople started teasing each other, saying, \u2018They\u2019re going to fire you,\u2019 or \u2018No, they\u2019re going to fire you.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course, the tension didn\u2019t disappear at the push of a button, but the employees\u2019 attention was increasingly drawn to other issues.<\/p>\n
Chapter II: Censorship Comes to an End<\/strong><\/h3>\n
P\u00e9ter Magyar in the Public Service Media \u2013 Source: P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s Facebook page<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cAccording to The Guardian, private planes are transporting the assets of those who grew wealthy under the Orb\u00e1n government out of Vienna\u201d\u2014this was the headline of an MTI piece published on Sunday, April 26, at 9:37 p.m.<\/p>\n
The state news agency examined a report by the British daily that had sparked significant controversy. The report claimed that members of a business circle close to Orb\u00e1n were attempting to move the wealth they had accumulated during the Fidesz government\u2019s tenure abroad.<\/p>\n
The press review was intended as a sort of test: if this could reach the public, then censorship would truly be over, and anything could be written in MTI. The test was successful. The press review was published and was subsequently picked up by several independent news sites. Moreover, the MTI news story about this was not edited afterward, and the author did not face any reprisals.<\/p>\n
This was considered a significant step forward, because even just a few weeks earlier, there were still signs of censorship at MTI. This happened, for example, during P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s appearances on public service media on April 15. Although Antal Rog\u00e1n\u2019s name was mentioned during the live broadcast, and the first draft of the MTI news story covering the interview also mentioned the former minister, his name was subsequently removed from the text. \u201cIt was completely nonsensical and also extremely humiliating,\u201d said an MTI source, who added that he and his colleagues only noticed the omission after the story had already been published.<\/p>\n
The gloomy mood was further worsened when News Director Zsolt N\u00e9meth dismissed their concerns during a staff meeting later that day.<\/p>\n
Infuriated, employees drafted \u00a0a \u00a0letter\u2014which became infamous as the \u201cPeasants\u2019 Uprising\u201d\u2014demanding the restoration of their editorial autonomy.<\/p>\n
With a few exceptions, most MTI employees added their names to the letter, gathering about a hundred signatures. Some of those who stayed away feared for their livelihoods, while others opposed the move because of their sympathy for Fidesz. According to sources familiar with the events, one of the latter even mocked the letter, while another colleague noted: \u00a0\u201cuntil now, there has been free journalism at MTI, and now oppression and occupation by the liberals are coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
The email got its name because it was sent with the subject line \u201cPeasant Uprising\u201d to the heads of public service media, including D\u00e1niel Papp\u2014who had become known as a purveyor of fake news\u2014the then-CEO of MTVA. The letter demanded that MTI\u2019s \u201cindependent, impartial, and professionally grounded news service\u201d be restored immediately and that N\u00e9meth\u2019s supervisory authority be revoked.<\/p>\n
Management issued a diplomatic, neutral response calling for patience, but the letter caused a stir among the public. The document was leaked to the press that very same day, prompting many on social media to criticize MTI employees, asking them why they hadn\u2019t taken action sooner and why they had waited until now to protest.<\/p>\n
Several MTI employees claim that they tried to take a stand against political censorship on an individual level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to push the boundaries; I sometimes spoke up, there was a bit of shouting from time to time, and there were times when I was afraid I\u2019d be fired\u2014but then they didn\u2019t fire me after all,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
said an MTI employee covering foreign policy. And there were attempts at rebellion at the community level as well; for example, in 2012, an open letter was written \u201cto restore MTI\u2019s professional and organizational independence,\u201d but it amounted to nothing more than a cry in the wilderness.<\/p>\n
The news agency plays a unique role in the Hungarian public sphere. Thanks to their extensive network of correspondents, they supply news content to most Hungarian newsrooms. Although MTI has also become part of the Fidesz propaganda machine, it has nonetheless functioned as a sort of enclave within the public service media.<\/p>\n
While M1, for example, has seen a significant turnover in staff in recent years, at MTI\u2014despite painful layoffs and voluntary departures\u2014the majority of the staff has remained the same. At the beginning of the Fidesz government\u2019s tenure, there were attempts at rebellion; on several occasions, they defiantly wrote news stories even when they knew their superiors would not publish them due to self-censorship. Most employees resented that the news agency\u2014founded in 1881 and having survived two world wars and a regime change\u2014had lost its independence and been absorbed into a state media conglomerate, which many employees referred to as a \u201cmonstrosity.\u201d \u201cI never thought of myself as working in public service media. I\u2019m an MTI employee,\u201d said one of them.<\/p>\n
One result of this frustration was that, behind the scenes, written evidence of censorship, manipulation, and direct control had been collected for more than ten years. The group, calling itself the Pro Domo Task Force, approached the new leadership of public service media this summer and handed over a 482-page document. The sheer size of this collection\u2014consisting mainly of internal correspondence\u2014was a surprise, but the existence of such incriminating material was already known; some of it had already been reported on by Direkt36 in a 2022 series of articles.<\/p>\n
Despite these efforts, many are forced to face the question: if they were bothered by the fact that they couldn\u2019t work with integrity in the public service media, why did they stay there?<\/p>\n
Beyond mere fears about making a living, various explanations have emerged for this moral dilemma. We spoke with an MTI employee who explained that he stayed out of a sense of professional duty. \u201cYou do your job even when conditions are very bad, just like a doctor,\u201d he said. In his view, since the tricks of the trade in news agency journalism aren\u2019t taught anywhere\u2014they can only be learned from colleagues\u2014if all the experienced staff had walked out, there would have been no one left to pass on that knowledge to the younger generation once they could work freely again. Another factor that contributed to his decision to stay was that he had always expected the Orb\u00e1n regime to collapse at any moment.<\/p>\n
Many compared themselves to a frog that boils to death in slowly heating water instead of jumping out. And many viewed the takeover of public service media as a kind of occupation, which led them to conclude, \u201cWe were here first; they should leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some cases, it was easier to stay on if one focused solely on one\u2019s own work. \u201cYou won\u2019t find any articles that I wrote and didn\u2019t take responsibility for. I\u2019ve always tried to be fair to everyone,\u201d said an MTI employee who writes primarily about culture, though he also struggles with the fact that he was there during those 16 years\u2014a period that, incidentally, caused him constant frustration. \u201cThere were many times when I wasn\u2019t proud of myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Others are also wrestling with their consciences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take me a long time to come to terms with why I stayed there until now. I don\u2019t have any unsavory political material, but I still worked there and contributed to the work,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
said one of MTVA\u2019s television staff members.<\/p>\n
![\"Az](\"https:\/\/direkt36-hu.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/kozmedia-belulrol-800x600.jpg\")
![\"Tarr](\"https:\/\/direkt36-hu.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tarr-felirat-800x554.jpeg\")