How like America and Fox News does this resemble; one feeds the other, and together, hand in hand, they thrive.
The crisis will arrive in November and December of 2020, when democracy will be pinned against the wall by the current forces of dishonesty, corruption, lunacy, and financial backing. That I can tell you. Believe me.
15
Not to worry...the other 400 ultra liberal entertainment outlets led by CNN will prevail. Biased, agenda driven “reporting” by these organizations actually reinforce Trump. They don’t get it.
With this type of complaining, it becomes even more difficult to create a credible and effective opposition. Time runs. The longer time they are out of government, the less likely they will ever be elected. This is not the fault of Orban. This is just the way politics work. The opposition should concentrate on fighting the government with democtratic means, for instance, presenting reasonable candidates to be mayors, present some political program that people support, etc. Without that, they will never be elected. This type of articles in NYTimes are in fact helping Orban.
8
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
This excellent article is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to stop the same thing from growing any further right here at home.
Welcome to the new Hungary, same as the old Hungary.
If you think this sounds like a somewhat subtler yet equally destructive, manipulative version of what FOX, Sinclair, Breitbart and their ilk spew out 24/7, you’re right. ‘Fake News,’ ‘Deep State,’ ‘con jobs,’ conspiracy theories, smear tactics and more, most of them disseminated with demagogic flair from the bully pulpit of our current POTUS.
Welcome to the world of superficial democracy. We’re one step closer to civilized fascism, unless we increase speaking truth to power through honestly factual media such as this particular publication.
19
Focusing on Orban and Hungary misses the point. This is not an isolated case but part of a wave moving over the semi-democratic landscape. Before Orban, Putin had successfully all but eliminated the free-press in Russia. Similarly, Erdogan of Turkey, although democratically elected back in 2003, has kept himself in power by stifling dissent and systematically eliminating the free-free.
Of course, Trump with his "fake news" rants, has the same goal in mind--he'd love to have the powers of an Orbin, Putin or Erdogan! Unfortunately, an independent judiciary stands in his way; hence the attacks on the Federal judiciary, and now on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court!
15
Imagine… while thousands of refugees continue to make their perilous journey thru Mexico, the courageous Mayor of Tijuana has reported the onslaught of aliens in his city are in the process of destroying his little piece of paradise.
Imagine… if only those socialist partisans associated with the mainstream news media had the courage to expose the lies that mask the evil their politically correct Paladins spread with their glorious rhetoric.
Imagine… harassing Christians, while protecting secular wunderkinds or pondering what’s going on in the progressive world of malcontents. I mean if it’s not a caravan of refugees crossing national boarders illegally; its French agitators plundering all in their path along the Champs Elysees.
4
Hungary should not be part of the EU. If it is, Orban should be brought to justice for his anti-democratic ways.
11
This article isn't a condemnation of Orban's policies. It's a condemnation of the way corporate money corrupts a society, whatever that society's government might be.
The corporations that control the dissemination of information in the US promote a more centrist line than those that control the dissemination of information in Hungary, but in both cases corporations have near total control and can lead us where they will.
26
President Trump attacks the free press and virtually all other democratic institutions.
I pose the following question to the 90% of the Republican base who have converted the GOP into the Trumpublican Personality Cult:
Will life in Trump’s America increasingly resemble life in Putin’s Russia?
Michael Idov, a perceptive journalist, notes: “Russian life [is marked by] the all-pervasive cynicism that no institution is to be trusted, because no institution is bigger than the avarice [and self-serving ambition] of the person in charge." ("Russia: Life After Trust," New York Magazine; January 23-February 5, 2017, p. 22.)
Trump's avarice and self-serving ambition are beyond question. Trump’s speech and behavior evidence a dictatorial impulse. He openly disregards the truth and disdains traditional norms of presidential conduct. Trump fosters an increasingly cynical view of politics, politicians, the free press, law-enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies and, most important, the Department of Justice, judges and the law courts.
If Vladimir Putin by his electoral interference had hoped to thoroughly polarize the American public and to weaken America's international prestige and leadership, he has already succeeded beyond his darkest, most Machiavellian expectations.
42
@Andrew G. Bjelland, Sr.
This is exactly right. Supporters of the Trump ignoramus will be ruled by Trumps self interest not their own.
Save democracy
8
Duturte is now after Rappler, and Rapplers founder. What do you want to think Trump will pat him on the back after a targeted assassination, and shutting Rappler down?
4
Mark Zuckerberg belongs in jail. Lock him up. Enough already.
We need strong legislation to protect democratic rule from subversion at such enormous scale. Freedom of the press does not only mean free from intimidation but also freedom from deception.
19
The situation in Hungary is deeply worrying and Orban is clearly taking advantage of every trick in the Eastern European Handbook of Zero-Sum Politics. However, this article does not provide the big picture and the absence of perspective seems misleading. Why is Orban so popular - is it because Hungarians are naturally inclined to support autocrats? Not so - the socialist lot who governed the country before him was so inept and corrupt, it has so mismanaged the country that Fidesz appears to be a paragon of prudence. Second, the Hungarians were treated to the stampede of millions wanting to trample over their country encouraged by German recklessness - Orban was the first European leader to actually do what the voters wanted him to do. This was prescient as other European politicians woke up to the electoral challenges of acting against the interests of their countries and peoples.
In other words, Orban is what most Hungarians want. Mentioning his name to a Budapest intellectual will evoke the same response as discussing Trump with a woke San Franciscan... which is precisely what both want.
11
I left a rather sharply worded and cynical post earlier, challenging the notion of what press freedom really means and whether it even exists.
The deluge of replies showed very clearly, that people by and large are confused.
Nowhere did I question the right of the press to challenge authority: I criticised it for doing it selectively, or not at all.
What boils my blood reading the US media is not so much the blatant bias, but the reporting of allegations, as facts.
In Europe, a person charged even with the most heinous crime gets his identity automatically protected until found guilty in court.
Here, an allegation can ruin a person’s life forever.
7
@waldo If someone is charged with a crime and arrested, their arrest and indictment is not an "allegation", it's a fact. Such things are a matter of public record in the US. If they weren't then we'd be looking at secret arrests. Definitely not a good idea.
Is it really true that arrests are secret in Europe? Or are you making unsupported claims. I know the EU has strong privacy protections but I can't fathom keeping arrests secret.
5
Orban only proves that George Soros has been correct.
18
Having had a Hungarian father, I have followed events there for many years, and really dislike what Victor Orban has done. However, the sad fact is that Hungary has had very ittle experience in truly representative government, so its roots in democracy are not deep. For centuries, it was ruled by Turks; then by Austrians, and despite a mini-revolution in 1848, it got only a measure of self-government in the Austria-Hungary. When that empire fell apart in 1918, Hungary had a brief moment of liberal capitalist government,but then Bela Kun, the country's first Communist ruler, seized power. He was soon superseded around 1920 by a little tinpot dictator, Admiral Horthy -- who anticipated Hitler in his anti-Semitism and was allowed to remain in power by Hitler until it became clear that he wasn't keeping the Soviets at bay. After World War II, again the country had about five minutes of liberal democracy until the Communists, with the backing of the Soviets, re-established their rule.....that said, these latter-day Communists weren't all bad for the country, as its economic development (like most of the rest of Eastern Europe) had lagged behind that of Western Europe.. Once Communism was dethroned, according to a relative who has moved to the West since 1989, the economic situation has not improved in important aspects. "Under Communism," she said to me, "nobody had much, but everybody had a little. Now a few people have a lot, and everybody else has nothing."
24
@Piri Halasz
America however, with its long history of democracy, is still at risk due to the systematic stupidization committed by the anti-democratic Republican Party.
10
Gawker, as vile as it often was, illustrates a similar and related problem - a publication being destroyed by proxy by someone who took offense at its coverage of him nearly a decade earlier and then subsequently financed a libel suit against it and its publisher not for financial damages, but to shut it down and drive those associated with it to ruin.
8
@expat Well if you commit libel then you've left yourself open to being sued. The fact that someone had a grudge and financed the libel lawsuit doesn't seem improper.
I didn't follow the Gawker case closely, it did seem like they had reported facts and so had not committed libel which means the jury reached a bad verdict. Which will happen. Perhaps the libel law needs some tweaking to re-emphasize that the truth can't be libelous.
3
The sooner the EU kicks Hungary out of the Union the better. EU Money just goes into the pockets of Orban's family and rich cronies and fortifies his dictatorship. The same goes for other East European countries who want to maintain their history of corrupt oligarchies and virulent anti semitism while raking in the benefits of EU largesse.
It was a great experiment by the EU, but perhaps a bit naive, to welcome these countries into the EU so soon after the fall of Russian communism. If these countries want to return to being poor vassals of the Russian Federation - so be it. The EU will not be worse off for letting them go. In fact they will have more resources to put into the countries that do share their values and conform to the rules of engagement of the EU.
29
@Gwen Vilen
Sure, send them right back to Putin.
Is that really the best move?
7
@Gwen Vilen - Excellent comment!
3
Shutting down opposition newspapers by various means, including financial, is common in Eastern Europe and is perpetrated by populist as well as democratic governments.
4
@Pressburger
If said opposition newspapers lie, shouldn’t they be held to account?
2
While Hungary was independent, the Jewish community flourished when the local autocrat deemed ghettoization, sumptuary laws, extra taxes, and other noxious treatment sufficient - when he didn’t, it was the fun of localized butchery that entertained the public.
When the Turks came knocking at their door, Hungary went Turkish, in everything but religion. Their antisemitism continued.
When the Austro-Hungarian Empire, what was left of the Wholly Non-Roman Empire, they ghettoized city Jews after stripping them if their property. Those laws were relaxed a bit when it was discovered they made excellent day laborers.
The Turks returned, then after the First World War, there was a short-lived period of confused Communist rule. Popular hatred of Judaism continued, though the formal ghetto ceased to exist.
When Hitler knocked, outside of a small underground, Hungary went Nazi and its citizens helped killed off most of its Jewish population.
They continued when any survivors of the Camps were allowed back under strict Stalinism.
After the fall of the USSR, Hungary actually went looking for their ex-pat Jewish community, as did Poland. The Chief Rabbi of the latter spent or still spends half his time with wife and kids in NYC.
Now the Hungarian rad-right, never prosecuted for the all-but-dead generation, proves it never died.
Their target, like Donald Trump’s, a wealthy American philanthropist who happens to be Jewish, the Evil Democratic decent rich guy, George Soros.
Thanks Donald!
15
Why does Hungary continue to be a member of NATO? Throw them out! All they are doing is taking NATO military strategy and providing it to Putin. Also stop sending American funds to Hungary. Check out the USAID website to see how our government glorifies Hungary's democratic progress. Can we get real?
19
@MC
Throwing Hungary out of NATO is simply passing the country over to Putin's hands. Most of the Hungarians (including me) are pro-EU and pro-NATO, but our voice is not being heard, since PM & friends own about 95% of the media, so a huge amount of people is reached by nothing but goverment propaganda 24/7.
Still a majority of people voted against them on the latest election, but they changed the electoral system, so with less then 50% of the votes they still have more than 2/3 of the seats.
It's pretty desperate now, I think the EU should stop sending money to Hungary immediately, since their money is being used only for dismantling democracy even further.
But all they care about is votes, and as long as the goverment party can deliver a huge number of votes for the EPP for next years European Parliament Election, they don't really care about real democracy.
12
It was a short-lived hope.
With the failure of the Polish experiment, Hungarians are going back to their traditional bad ways.
It was worth a shot.
But then the US put the loser of the popular election in the White House.
He started making Nazism and Nationalism and Nativism acceptable again, and the further east one goes in Europe, the more rapidly the swamp Trump brought with him brought the old ways right back.
I am more frightened by the increasing boldness of the hate lobby, infuriated, as one polite Long Island bigot said to me before the first Obama victory, “I just cant see a black man in a White House”.
Last month I walked into a whats left of downtown bagel joint, I asked for one with “half a schmear, on it - the East Asian guy doing the sandwiches knew exactly what I wanted - about 3/8ths” cream cheese. The very pale gal at the register started in with a rap about “that sounds Jewish, yeh very Jewish, well, that would be OK by me, but it sounds very Jewish.”
The counter guy and I exchanged obvious glances of disgust; the only reason I didn’t pick up the bottle of Coke in my hand, give it a really hard shake and point the still-sealed top at her, before tossing it in her lap, still sealed, saying “you’re lucky I’m feeling nonviolent today - hate-mongers like you are not OK by me”.
Yes Trump has made us free again - and brought his brand of “freedom” to the world.
Take your place on the Great Mandala.
5
This line of the report makes no sense.
[There was no evidence of favoritism: New Wave had simply made the highest bid. But bolstered by money from the state, New Wave could afford to pay whatever it took to avoid the outlet being sold to businesses not aligned with the government.]
If New Wave, a Hungarian financed firm, made the highest bid with government funding, how can that not be a form of favoritism? Does the United States have any mechanism protect the American press from a government funded cartel?
Your question makes no sense. There was no favoritism because the sellers accepted the highest bid. Where that money came from is immaterial. Favoritism would have been if they sold to a low bidder for political reasons.
2
@Sneeral Why is the source of the money immaterial? That's crazy. So if this December the Republican Congress voted to fund the purchase of CNN by Trump's company that would be ok?
2
@Sneeral: money can buy favoritism.
1
Okay, so a German telecom company sold out this website to get in sweet with Orban. And American companies have never done anything remotely similar to catch sweet deals with foreign governments, no, of course not. But my question about claims of Orban censorship is this: why don't independent journalists simply open up another, new website wholly owned by the employees, which is not for sale. Yes, it seems clear that Orban is slowly squeezing those he can squeeze. But if you have a website not owned by a multinational firm, then Orban can't buy it. Thus this alleged censorship is far from complete, perhaps not even censorship at all.
4
@Lotzapappa There is a website which is as popular as origo.hu, called index.hu.
The entire presentation is for the underinformed American piublic.
6
@Lotzapappa " why don't independent journalists simply open up another, new website wholly owned by the employees...?"
Some of them did, others ended up working for already existing independent news sites. The thing is, Origo has had such a strong presence in Hungary since the beginnings of the internet, that for many people, mainly from the older generations it is basically the only online news outlet that they know. If that wasn't enough, the media close to government, including Origo and many other online news sites, virtually all paper based local publications (gradually acquired by Orban's childhood friend Lörinc Mészáros), and most countrywide television networks (either state run or also owned by people close to Orban, like Andy Vajna) are strongly cross-advertising each other, and are continually trying to undermine the credibility of the independent media, labeling them "communist", or "Soros media", or simply fake news. Unfortunately it seems to work pretty effectively.
Also, as weird as it sounds, in Hungary the largest advertiser on the market, by a pretty huge margin is the government. They pipe insane amounts of public money into the companies running these news outlets (and into the pockets of their owners), and virtually none of that advertising money goes to independent outlets, so they struggle financially.
4
@Lotzapappa The outrage around Origo comes from the fact that it used to be a liberal site very critical of Orban, now since it changed owners, it is government friendly. During previous governments including Orban's first government practically 99% of the media was left-wing. NYTimes was not worried back then about the freedom of press in Hungary. Conservatives had to start from scratch. The minority that is protesting now should start up new websites, right, but they want the government to fund it since they know they would not be self-sustainable.
1
It is indeed sad to see free newspapers shut down in Hungary. It is also sad to have most newspapers in the US have a leftist anti Trump bias. Somehow the press, the academic circles,the film industry are all presenting the news in a biased left leaning way.
I am hoping a Hungarian newspaper article will point this out in detail. Tit for Tat
6
Indeed. How bizarre for most media outlets to not favor a wannabe dictator who says everyday that the press is the enemy of the people? How trgiic it is that the media points out all of Trump's thousands of lies, issued daily from his mouth or his middle-school level Twitter account.
13
I shared this article in the Facebook group of my university classmates (and a few student-government members - that's where the problem starts) a few hours ago.
We study communication and media at one of the best universities of the country, Corvinus University of Budapest. As media students, a NYT article about a media-related issue of our country is very exciting and important.
My post was deleted and I was thrown out of the group of my university class. I did not break any rules of the group (e.g. you shouldn't post job offers, etc.), because there are no rules against sharing any articles or even the expression of political views.
However, the leadership of our university and most of the student delegates share the idea of the present government and things like these happen, like on a daily basis. This was the first time it happened to me, but a friend who drew my attention to my drop-out had the same issue a few weeks ago for sharing a non-political article about the future of our university (which is, by the way, in danger because the government will run it to the last bit from the next semester, and we are being told nothing certain about our future).
This story might say a lot about the freedom of press and speech in my country.
Somebody help us, because we couldn't help ourselves...
29
So, in other words, democracy in Hungary is a sham—they’ve gone from being under Communist rule to being under authoritarian rule in a different form.
5
@FA, I read that Corvinus will no longer receive government funding, is this a good thing or a bad thing? How will it affect the school?
The university will be run by a foundation, but which will be founded by the government. The money will still come from the state but it will be harder to monitor and they can chose whoever to accept to the university, because the universal application conditions won't apply anymore - as a foundation can decide whoever they want to give a scholarship to. Basically the situation will be the same but worse at the same time.
2
The EU eastern enlargement had been a total mistake. Countries like Hungary and Poland had hardly weaned themselves off totalitarianism when they joined the EU in 2004 after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
People welcomed EU funds and access to cheap money, but they had never learned to take responsibilities for their pecuniary actions.
While enjoying rights and freedoms, many Hungarians also borrowed heavily from abroad in hard currencies like the Swiss franc, to buy homes. Following the slogan: "Consume today and pay tomorrow", they lived beyond their means.
When the financial crisis set in, debt-ridden, they were hoping that the state would help them out, as they were so used to being nannied under a communist regime. Disappointed, they put the blame on the centrist government for their financial woes, ushering in a populist regime under Viktor Orban in 2010.
11
What does 'independent press' really mean? Is it a free-wheeling license to obfuscate, insinuate, report allegations, not facts, cover things up when convenient, bending facts to suit its bias? In my experience, it's all that and more. The truth, all the truth and nothing, but the truth has nothing to do with it.
And before you criticise faraway Hungary look at your own turf. The US media is the absolute worst offender. Even the publicly funded PBS has a bias in all its reporting.
33
@waldo, the US has multiple outlets. Whatever slant you want, you can find it among the many right-left-middle media outlets. Censorship occurs when the government asserts control over the media. That hasn't happened here yet; although, I am sure, if Trump has his way, it woild happen.
76
@waldo
If "bias" means independent an critical fact checking and a fealty to be accurate and self-correcting in the face of error/mistakes and quite open to admitting when one is off base as well as being even handed, then by all means, embrace that bias.
In other words, this form of bias ain't akin to Faux News...and certainly not Origo.
47
@waldo
You asked the question so I will answer it.
An independent press is:-
unfettered by rules, regulations or laws designed to reduce the scope of its reporting or the opinions expressed or to influence its reporting and its opinions in favor of the ruling party.
Ask yourself one question. Would the newspaper in which your comment has been published be tolerated in Hungry under the Oban government?
82
Among the biggest blows to the free press was the shuttering of two major newspapers, Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet. To put it in equivalent terms, like losing the NewYork Times and the Post, although one had had a more conservative bent. People will point out, however, that people have access to online sources from abroad. I am reading this article in a coffee shop in Szeged. But Fidesz's base comprises largely less we'll educated folks in small villages who don't speak English and can't read the foreign press. Well educated and we'll traveled folks in Budapest and larger urban areas were not likely to go for fidesz, and many are leaving the country anyway (the loss of CEU will result in another smaller exodus of the educated.) Orbán is fine with this, of course. Hungary is in sharp decline. It's very sad.
130
@Ilona
"the shuttering of two major newspapers, Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet"
Facts, Ilona, facts. Népszabadság could and should have been bought by MSZP, but wasn't. Magyar Nemzet was sold to an offshoot of I believe the German Springer concern. Neither made any money.
Welcome to the freedom of the press, capitalist style.
6
@waldo
some info on Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet
Népszabadság: majority owner was Ringier, MSZP was a minority owner with a veto vote: the reason the daily staid open this long.
Once MSZP went bankrupt it had to let into the pressure and Orban's great plan started to materialise:
Have all print dailies under his control to secure people's vote, who don't use the internet, i.e. the pensioners
Step 1: put a Fidesz puppet to the National Media Authority, to allow the fusion of Ringier and Springer
Step 2: Have the package of dailies you wanted and make an offer on these to the owners: Ringier and Axel what these would not refuse, as their goal is to merge the co, this is how they operate in the region.
All county dailies and Nepszabadság eventually were sold off by Springer and Ringier to an Austrian businessman - who was appearing before court for shady business practices in his own country.
This person closed down Nepszabadság (reason said it was loss making - not hard to do if you also own the printing facility and you can charge over such expenses to make it loss making) and the rest of the dailies were sold on to Meszaros, i.e. Orban within few months.
Ringier-Springer kept the profitable gossip magazines to earn money to their shareholders.
Magyar Nemzet: Orbans oligarch Simicska's ownership who turned on Orban at the "G" day. The paper took a 180 degrees and as all business was gradually taken from Simicska Magyar Nemzet was shut down eventually, too.
10
This writer’s point is worth considering. How much of a check on the power of the petty tyrant is the globalized world? How easy is it to leave for other parts of Europe? Do other Europeans consider Hungarians “immigrants “ they same way they are hostile to middle-eastern immigrants? Can the tyrant cut off Hungary’s internet the way China has done? Does any of this porosity have an effect?
4
Deeply worrying to see that Hungary is falling into what amounts to unchecked dictatorship. Given that George Soros is the only person around with the ability to challenge this move on the part of Mr. Orban, it is all the more shocking to learn of Facebook's smear tactics against Soros. Is Mark Zuckerberg really so naive, or does he not care that Facebook is being used to destroy the practise of democracy around the world?
197
Naive? Doesn't care? HA ha ha ha!
The correct answer's neither. He does care that Facebook uses people[sic] in as evil a manner as possible, because from its roots as a Hot-or-Not knockoff and data miner[1][2] to its "maturity" as a full-on antisemitic GOP sponsor[3] and data giver to C'Analytica (which was NOT A BREACH), evil has always been Zuckerberg Facebook's goal.
People who are still willing to get used by Facebook, and media outlets who still beg users to Like 'em on Facebook, are complicit in their antisemitic bulldoze of democracy and privacy.
The worst part is that it defames actual tech. There are many good free-software programs out there that you can get at no cost, but thanks to Zuck even the Sane are forced to mull how free even they really are. There are many programmers out there who are solving real problems and not just bandwagoning the latest Web- or app-development craze, but thanks to Zuck (and Google, and Amazon, and Microsoft, and Apple...) they're probably getting run out of their new homes in protest by longtime residents too.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010-3
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html
4
@exPat88 the difference is, nobody in Hungary voted for Soros, therefore he has no business in Hungarian politics, or in European politics for that matter.
6
@exPat88 He had a big chance these past couple of weeks to swear his fealty to democracy (and privacy). Instead, he chose defiance. I've deleted my FB account and urge others to do the same. Continuing to participate, as the product he sells, is complicity in his bad acts.
We need to create a void in the marketplace so a more responsible player can come up with a way to keep us "open and connected" without catering to the right wing and joining in on the demonization of those who promote democracy.
Many of us have come to really value the FB platform as a way to connect, share, and discuss. It seems likely a more decent company could provide that service, with a decent revenue stream rather than a monstrous, nothing matters but money, one. I'm watching patiently . . . jump in, developers; the water's fine and we await you!
8
Last night I caught an interview by Christiane Anampour of the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarro on PBS. I couldn’t entirely disagree with his assessment the Hungarian people freely elected the government they have now. Perhaps, the press needs to reinstate its own checks and balances and act like it is acting in the best interests of the people instead of following the tabloid trend for ratings. And yes, it should include criticism of the government where warranted.
What is happening in the US and the 24/7 feed of Trump is over the top and misses the point of freedom of the press. Stop giving Trump the platform he craves, why he ran for the presidency, notice. Why did the press fail in its duty before the 2016 election while focusing on emails that was already a dead issue?
4
The contention is that the press is not free in Hungary and that Origo is compromised because it isn't telling the story the NY Times wants to tell. When the hegemony of the liberal orthodoxy is challenged, the leftwing press says the sky is falling. The false narrative of the "woe is us", aggrieved press may make journalists feel better, but it's just whining to most people.
4
What does it take to have a really healthy, and free, press, let alone, a functioning freedom of expression, in our day to day life on the ground? These qualities, and freedoms appear, at once, very valuable, and, simultaneously, so easily, degraded and lost.
Other than, to get votes, to create his own, huge, wave, of like-minded people, moving forward, to inflame the minds of those who truly love him, to "mark" a scapegoat, fanning the flames of, "us and them," to show, great, great, righteous umbrage at any criticism, is Mr. Trump not portraying the press of his choice so negatively in order shape the world into what he wishes it to be?
Yet another article that cannot comprehend that people voted for Orban democratically, simply because he made several key decisions about the economy of the country, as well as migration that the people agree with. Unemployment is 3%, it was more than 10% before and has never been that low. The state debt is decreasing, the budget deficit is low. The average salary increased by 10% last year. And the country is safe, no bombs and knifes, unlike for instance Germany, since there are no tons of illegal migrants.
And people voted for that. Yes, origo is now pro government. But index.hi, which I think, the most popular news site, is against the government. (The article says that origo is the most popular. Then, index.h is the second, but very very close.)
There are plenty of other similar sites, like 168ora.hu, 444.hu, hvg.hu, etc.
If the opposition wants to win on the elections, they should stop this self justifying nonsense. They lost, since they are very bad.
7
@Steven
I wouldn't call an election democratic, just because everyone gets a pen and a ballot.
Democratic election starts with free press, where the people can get news from different sources to see every option clearly, before they make a decision. This doesn't happen in Hungary.
Most of the Hungarians are never ever reached by real news only goverement made propaganda.
They rather remain poor, but don't want the migrants to take their jobs and pensions, or rape their women and children.
On top of that many people in the poor regions are threatened that they may lose their jobs, if the goverment loses election. Since they depend on goverment jobs and benefits heavily, they don't take the risk. (I've spoken to such people in person.)
And of course as soon as someone from the opposition becomes strong enough to break a certain popularity threshold, goverment media starts a massive character assasination and he/she becames corrupt, pedophile, drug addict, etc. within days if not hours.
4
Sinclair Broadcast Group rings an alarmingly familiar bell to me. Their insatiable appetite for consolidating media outlets has to be stopped least we become just like Hungary.
13
Once people had to go through layers and groups of editors and experienced thinkers who decided what was in the general interest of their media or nations. Now, the a 24 hour , near instant ability to publish information, it seems more important to a growing segment of the reading world to get material "out there" fast-not get it right.
As a result the the gatekeepers no longer recall that states like Hungary,(and Russia and other European & third world), have never really experienced what Westerners define as "free" press or government. Hungary has existed as a "free"state only since 1990-just yesterday in historical terms. Of course instant states won't be much good at governing, or allowing free information flow.
In the US we have spent over 200 years and not gotten it right! The British and West Europeans are still operating on models with little formal legal backbone. As a result, if a few thousand people in Britain think becoming a 19th century state again,(brexit), is a good idea- digital transmission of such idiocy moves faster than the cogniscenti can act to halt such action.
We all are much safer and better off with groups of experienced people reining in our worst , youthful & dangerous impulses to act sans thought.
2
Sure we need a free press, but Trump is right calling many publishers phony fake-news organs too! We all have experienced this fake-news phenomenon when we have actually been at the scene of an event that is later turned into something totally different from what we personally saw, and experienced! Liberalism is the big problem with those who report the news , their way, over the past 60 years. Sad! Sad for democracy..
2
@Moe
It would be helpful if you could name a couple of instances of "fake news" by the media.
How is liberalism a "big problem"? Is Fox News more trustworthy than CNN?
3
How is this any different from the glory days of the Yellow Press journalism era of the William Randolph Hurst?
The press and news has become more opinion and editorials these days in the quest for eyeballs on pages to get more money from advertisers.
Until the model of journalism changes to reporting the facts (and doing in depth investigations regardless of the number of eyeballs on a page but rather because the issues are important) and also puts more 'news issues' in perspective (remember how much media pushed on swine flu, avian flu, Zika virus? Oh the media hysteria hits each year show they have learned nothing in journalism because those 'outbreaks' and the amount of attention they got paled to the actual numbers of deaths from the ordinary cold or from our Western diet (still the number one killer).
The free press died the moment it pursued sensationalism and was run by the quest for advertisers.
3
While it’s easy to point blame at Trump, France, Germany, Spain and Italy major economic powers of the EU stand by and do nothing. With this kind of behavior Hungry should be kicked out of the EU. This way Hungarians wouldn’t easily be pretending to be in a real democracy with an economic future. And Western Europeans wouldn’t be living in a false sense of security that their neighbors whom they conduct free trade with share their values.
4
Bannon stirring up right wing nationalism across Europe is lining up allies for Trump to work with establishing authoritarian governments in Europe and the United States . Dictators do not tolerate dissent and using force to silence them is the way to handle any one questioning the rule of a Dear Leader. Trump loves Putin, Kim and MSB authoritarian leaders and despises democratic leaders of Germany, France and Canada clearly shows his idea of government. Most folks do not realize what it is like to live under an authoritarian government ,Trump ordered our troops to the border encouraging them to shoot civilians as they are "bad people" What would stop him from ordering troops to 5th ave. in front of Trump tower to shoot protesters after he loses 2020 election. He has said he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose support of his rabid supporters it could become very real as Citizen Trump could be facing jail time once out of power so nothing to lose.
2
Interesting story, but this could not happen here. It is fueled by an undereducated minority of people who need to blame shift their own problems on others....including immigrants and a free press. Wait a minute. Let me rethink that first sentence.
6
Under Viktor Orban free press in Hungary has been suffocated. Despite the First Amendment, it could also happen in the US under Trump, who admires Orban.
In June 2016 Newt Gingrich declared approvingly after a visit to Hungary: “American media should study Hungary’s record.” He also lauded a 13ft-high razor-wire border fence that Orban erected against the influx of refugees.
An opportunist, Orban enjoys the trappings of power, and creates an authoritarian cleptocracy, while silencing critics. In order to cement his grip on power he claims to be Europe’s defender of the Christian culture.
Media had been concentrated in the hands of his cronies, state-funded advertising go largely to outlets loyal to the regime and other journalists excercise self-censorship. Orban’s trick is so subtle that the spirit of media repression achieves legislative ends even when laws aren’t being used.
In September the European Parliament voted to punish Hungary for flouting EU rules on democracy, corruption and civil rights, including media freedom. The disciplinary Article 7 procedure against an EU member state has the potential to strip Hungary of its voting rights.
The issue will come before the Council of Ministers, which makes up of member state ministers, and is the second legislative organ of the EU, in addition to the European Parliament. It is unclear when the Council will add this issue to its agenda, but it is not expected anytime soon.
6
Trump is systematically dismantling our Democracy
Attacks on the Free Press
Attacks on the Justice System
Gerrymandering
Voter Suppression
Hate and Fear Mongering
Blatant Lies, Propaganda and Conspiracy Theories
The US is moving fast toward a 'Democracy in name only', a lot like Hungary and other pseudo-Democracies. It is unbelievable that many people in this country are cheering this slide in Authoritarianism on.
12
The most effective way to counter Trump is not by emulating him, but by drawing a strict, principled contrast.
That would start by acknowledging that he has many very sound ideas, particularly on immigration, that appeal to very many people [insert here obligatory derogation of his followers as fascists and bumpkins, and thereby intensify the media's isolation]. Not every one--not even 1 in 10--of the people seeking entry to our country from Tijuana is a poor unwed mother with two infants, collectively desperately yearning to breathe free. And even if they were, that is no reason to bypass our legal procedures for entry.
Then, demonstrate why those ideas need to be *modified* in order to be just. Don't--don't--substitute virtue-signaling for disciplined fighting back.
The more that Jake Tapper and Chris Cuomo, together with Don Lemon and Steven Colbert, and the entire Editorial Board at the Times--all facile, snooty, reflexive and dismissive--become the face of the alternative, Trump will continue to win. As he should.
2
@Wine Country Dude The notion that trump* has ideas is ludicrous. To develop an idea one must read, consider and integrate a wide range of information. #HeDoesNotEvenRead.
3
@Wine Country Dude: the Republicans control all branches of government. If they had any ideas, they could have passed them by now.
3
It's already started here. Trump has declared the press the "enemy of the people." Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest single owner of tv stations (owns or operates 193 tv stations in the US in 80 markets, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stations_owned_or_operated_by_Sinclair_Broadcast_Group) is run by a far-right clique that issues mandatory conservative editorials that must be run by its stations. Fox "News" has become the de facto Ministry of Propaganda for the Trump administration.
Critics and trolls commenting on this article are sure to point out "errors" and bias on the part of independent press---which of course is the first stage of calling for government regulation of the press.
3
We are seeing something similar here with liberal technocrats like Bezos buying papers like previously respected The Washington Post and turning them into liberal mouthpieces. This is much like how Alibaba bought independent The South China Morning Post of Hong King and is slowly turning it into a Communist mouthpiece.
Thank goodness for platforms like Twitter where the President can get his message out directly, even though platforms like Facebook routinely censor conservative messages.
3
@Jay Lincoln That is called free press. Free, as in not controlled by the government. On the other hand, #FoxStateMedia is a willing collaborator. All trump* “gets out” by twitter is vituperation and long strings of demonstrable lies. (See: Fox). As in Hungary, there are many who cheer on this illiberalism.
4
@Jay Lincoln That is no parallel at all. A parallel would be if Bezos bought the Post and turned it into a lackey outlet like Fox news. As it is, the Post is an excellent example of our free press with top notch writers and independent investigative journalists. It competes seriously with the Times, which in itself is high praise.
3
It should not surprise anyone that what happened in Hungary is now happening here? The only difference is that we’re lucky enough to have this newspaper and other outlets like NBC News and CNN.
We do, though, have lifetime appointments to our federal courts. As you know.
Trump chooses, mostly, those men that view their decision making through trump-tinted night vision goggles—scratched with unqualified ignoramuses.
4
During the BP Macondo oil spill, several stories reported by The New Orleans Times-Picayune were deleted. Because I had studied comparative journalism in college, I have followed many stories in the U.S. and foreign media. In this case, I would copy a stories URL in a Microsoft Word file for eventual comparisons.
In the case of the Macondo story, stories deleted included the Jones Act offers by several European nations during the week-of and week-after the tragedy. These were typically deleted within a few hours after I read them. One other interesting story that I found quickly deleted was one by the regional director of the Audubon Society.
1
To me, the most ironic part of of Viktor Orban's rise to power is this: In 1944, Hungary is where the Nazis killed more Jews faster than anywhere in Europe. Well over 1 million were sent to death camps in a matter of months, not years. This is clearly shown in the documentary "The Last Days", in which several survivors went back to their former homes, and the camp locations. It is a stunning film of a horrific thing; and, should be seen by all so we never forget. Even worse, Trump has shown the template which is now followed by Orban and many other leaders (of all types) of not just Eastern Bloc nations, but European as well.
6
The hypocrisy of this article is stunning,yet another opportunity to bash Trump
for bashing the media.To compare what Trump does to what Orban has done
is a real stretch.When one considers that over 90%.of articles written
on Trump are negative and over 90% of reporters are liberal or progressive
the term free press is a joke since the entire purpose is to sway the public
to your way of political thought.Therefore a more apt comparison would be
our press behaving like Orban not Trump behaving like him.Squash opposition to
your ideology at every chance.
5
@John “... over 90%.of articles written
on Trump are negative“. What’s your evidence for this?
1
And since we're on the subject of 'independent press' here is a glaring example of what a monstrous lie that is.
The German daily Handelsblatt recently ran a rather condemning piece about the Orban government's relationship to the controversial do-gooder Soros, accusing it with 'blatant antisemitism'.
The government responded with a counter piece, laying out why that allegation is a lie, requesting the paper to run it. Not a retraction, only an opposing opinion. The paper refused. Its excuse? 'Freedom of the press' - which in their demented mindset gives them the right to oppress opposing opinions.
2
I looked it up in the Hungarian English dictionary and Origo in English is Fox.
No origo is not fox in Hungarian.
1
Please - I beg you - don't refer to Trump as a "leader."
3
Yet another example, this time from Hungary: Dictators are corrupt and lying. That is why US should be careful when see a corrupt and lying person in Oval Office.
3
Sadly, we refuse to remember history and how the loss of a free press heralds the fist of the right closing on free thought. I was a refugee from this tight fisted beautiful country. Now, I am watching as we continue to give idiocy center stage.
5
This report is disgusting hypocrisy. You celebrated the censorship of Alex Jones while you bemoan the censorship in Hungary.
Amazon bans legitimate history books under pressure from Leftist lobbies and you report nothing about this disgrace because the banned volumes are books of which you do not approve.
With those double-standards in mind, many of us are not going to sympathize with your selectively indignant calls for freedom of expression. What you are really demanding is freedom only for your own type of partisan politics.
Your credibility continues to sink.
2
We already have state controlled media here. It's called Fox News.
2
Isn’t interesting that the USA now is modeling what racist third and developing nations are doing? Long ago the USA bastion of so called Democracy, now copies what dictators are implementing in their nations. Obviously Trump and his white nationalists ideas are slowly being implemented by Fox News and their kind of racist media.
2
Our propaganda problem began decades ago when driving from Miami to Denver meant being carpet bombed with either conservative talk radio or Christian broadcasting. I remember long drives through the United States when the only broadcast available was the promises of salvation alternated with the oxycontin induced slurs of Rush Limbaugh. Decades of conservative radio have laid the foundation for the fascism of Trump. Generations of Americans have been raised on this Kool-aid. Abortion, God, terrorism, and guns are the 4 simple topics they have repeatedly used for mind control. My current worry is the cohesive maneuvering of authoritarian leaders. Trump embraces Putin,Kim,and Mohammed bin Salman . It is terrifying when these clowns begin to form a club. I find myself changing the words to the 70's song by Gerry Rafferty, "Nazi's to left and fascists to the right.....stuck in the middle with you." Hopefully I am simply paranoid?
3
The EU is paralyzed by fear of upsetting the fascist vermin that are infesting its foundations, which could trigger a major anti-EU backlash, and is doing nothing to stop the Hungarians’ dismantling of democracy.
What I fear instead is that this immobility will ultimately cause enormous harm to the EU in the long term. Many Europeans I talk to would rather cut off Hungary abruptly from the EU gravy train, and let the Orban government starve and collapse. Which it would, because without the EU Orban is just a pathetic two-cent banana republic dictator. All he does is suck money and resources from the EU to fund pet projects at home, while scapegoating immigrants, choking political freedom and enriching his cronies in a massively corrupt semi-fascist system.
Be brave, EU: cut him off, let him starve, let his own people kick him out into the gutter where he belongs
8
This is exactly what The Con Don and his International Mafia brethren would like to do with OUR United States of Ameria and international press.
Thankfully it appears that there are enough democracy-loving media people who will not let it happen.
Not now. Not ever.
8
Certainly a different dynamics than in the US.
From a business perspective Trump is about the best that happened to MSNBC ratings, for example, which are getting very close to catching up with those of Fox (after being about a third of Fox's in the Obama years).
Trump's dealing with media is more of a reality show impulse to incite culture wars that he thinks will benefit him or the show he wants to pull of for his "base". The Acosta treatment probably fired up some of his right-wing followers - but, at the same time, was great advertisement and talking head fodder for CNN.
Hungary is a more grim story of country whose democracy and "free press" is less than 30 years old (as opposed to nearly 300 years in the US). Authoritarian sentiments are still ingrained in the mind set of considerable parts of the population from those nostalgic for communist rules and those looking to autocrats like Putin, to those drifted to the right wing fringe as reaction to communist resentment, economic turmoil in the transitions, and/or inflammatory migration rhetoric.
There are old corrupt power structure and there is popular support that are quite different from the landscape in the US.
3
@crwtom what sort of "old corrupt power structure" are you referring to? It seems that you are confusing it with the socialists, since Orban's party was the one fighting for changing the regime and for free elections, he was the first politician openly demanding that the Russians leave the country in 1989. No need to spread false information, Orban is not an autocrat, he won his mandate through democratic election, unless you think of course that democracy only works if the outcome gives the result that is expected.
2
@Evetke Orbán is a cowardly opportunist. He (and most of his cohort in the Fidesz) started out in the Communist Party (when it was still in power) or its youth movement. Orbán demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops (not Russian, mind you, as other ethnic groups of the empire were over-represented) only after the withdrawal had been negotiated quietly between Hungary and the USSR. He was among the few who knew this (as a member of the inner circle of the negotiations on the first free elections and the regime change), and the only one who took advantage of his insider knowledge to impress people like you.
Subsequently, he stacked his governments (including his current one) with people from the old regime, including from the security apparatus (look at his minister of interior). The first and second time he got elected in a fair manner. However, after the second time he abused his supermajority to unilaterally demolish the system of checks and balances, to make it impossible to democratically replace him. This included the abolishment of the Constitution (which he pledged to protect when inagurated), replacing it with a "fundamental law" that was neither mentioned in his programme, nor had legitimacy. He has been exercising absolute power despite having received the votes of barely one third of the electorate.
5
Why hasn't the EU done anything about this? Without a free press and a free judiciary how can Hungary still be part of the EU?
11
@lzolatrov
Hungary is an integral part of the German economy (Audi and Mercedes have already built high-capacity factories in country, BMW just announced to do the same). And Orban's party, Fidesz delivers some very important votes to the European Conservative Party (led by the German Manfred Weber) at the harsh battles in the European Parliament. Was that an answer to you?
3
Whenever I see a picture of a politician with fifty microphones thrust in their face recording the same words and just as many cameras taking pictures of the same thing, what does that say about objectivity? Sometimes it just seems like too much of something not making it better.
2
Sorry.
If reporters asking questions and expecting answers bothers you, congratulations!!
You’re living in the USA!
2
I’d actually be far more concerned if I only saw one microphone and camera.
1
Trump's obsession with labeling the news media as fake news appears to be well grounded as a strategic means of controlling freedom of the press. I suspect that Mr. Bannon has a finger in this pie, and that the success in establishing autocratic control of the government in Hungary is serving as a model for how to achieve the same success in the US. As noted in this story, control of the electoral map, and control of the judiciary in Hungary, are the other means of ensuring that Orban can maintain control of his pseudo-democracy. It certainly appears that Donald is working from the same training manual as well.
13
Look at Orbán from the Hungarian perspective. He has put Hungary on the map of successful politics. The country has succeeded for its people. China is not perfect, but their elite have put China on the map of world importance. The same is true in Hungary. We are back. The life of the average Hungarian family is improving. Is there corruption? Plenty. But people are better off. Look at merry old England. It’s not very merry! Is it doing well? No. The UN is even after the UK for not dealing with serious issues around poverty. Orbán is far from perfect, but he is a politician and why would one ever think a politician can be perfect? After all, we humans are fallen creatures. Democracy is imperfect. Leadership is tough. Sometimes we need to put up with the imperfect to survive to fight the next battle. Thanks Orbán!
10
@Laszlo Koszeghy thank you! I agree 100% with you! Köszi :)
3
@Laszlo Koszeghy But to have no tolerance for criticism and to seek that so much of your coverage, is coverage that you, or your friends, control, is try to eliminate the, hard learned, and hard earned, checks and balances the imperfect absolutely need. Yes - that is, considering who human beings actually are, a hard earned wisdom, to which to submit oneself, though it is the right thing to do, no?
5
@Laszlo Koszeghy
He succeded because he is in the EU and he gets a shitload of money every year for being a member. If that would stop, things would look much more grim.
Democracy is imperfect but he is authoritarian. did you read the article
6
The U.S. already has its own version of Origo in Fox News, with its breathless support of the current regime and tenuous familiarity with facts. The recent revocation of Jim Acosta's press pass is just the next step. You're portraying Hungary as much farther down the road to fascism than the U.S. is, but the reality is that the two countries are not so far separated.
20
Government advertising revenues is a lever used by many authoritarian / corrupt regimes in Middle East and Asia to get favorable coverage from the press.
When I now read the online version of the English language newspapers that I used to in my overseas assignments in the 80s and 90s, I’m disappointed by their partisan coverage of events slanted to favor a political party that was known to indulge in excessive patronage of the paper, and of journalists individually. Frankly, (given the censorship then) I never expected much from the newspapers in the Middle East, but it’s disappointing to see in the South Asian countries.
As newspapers struggle with their business models the world over, corrupt politicians will continue to explore opportunities to subvert them to their own political ends.
5
Smug Americans; you're there and you don't know it.
"But below the surface, the system has been degraded. The Supreme Court is stacked with judges appointed by Republicans. The judiciary and the prosecution service are headed by two of Mr. Trump's oldest supporters. Both the electoral system and the electoral map have been altered to favor Mr. Trump's party."
30
Hungary is the canary for America's democratic coal mine. For a description of how Orban and Trump and their ilk unmake a democracy, go to Amazon and look up the short book KILLING DEMOCRACY. It could easily be America's future.
12
This persons claims are beyond biased. Ironically.
The NYT is biased, yes, biased towards facts and truth while Fox News ignores facts that don’t portray trump in a positive light. Truth to fox depends solely on whether it benefits trump.
To me the worst kind of bias is a story not covered. Not reporting facts or lies.
Regardless, you can’t talk about bias in media without mentioning how Fox News is biased against truth and reality. Besides, this same bias appears in nearly every rural newspaper and channel in the country.
Those who claim bias mention only those outlets that don’t agree with trump or his policies. To most thinking people the real bias can be found in outlets that toot trumps horn.
9
I wonder how Kingsley and Novak (assuming they are American) can allow themselves to sit in judgment on Orbán or Hungary, when America is so ridiculously dysfunctional in so many ways: gratuitous gun violence,
insitutionalized and deadly racism against black people in many American police forces, blatant gerrymandering of electoral districts, blatant manipulation of the political process and public opinion by big money, a collapse of civic concern for the poor, an opioid epidemic among white working class Americans, unfolding environmental catastrophes, the list just goes on and on ....
4
It is difficult to believe that Americans love free press, considering the outrage against WikiLeaks when it published DNC emails that showed dishonesty of the political process. It was truth, and yet many in America didn't like it, especially Dems. So, why should Orban like outlet that publish material against him? At least he was not trying to imprison the editors, as the USA is trying to do with Assange.
5
@yulia Stealing and disseminating private emails is okay with you? Cool, cool. Please share your email address here and we'll get right on that.
There is a distinction between reporting and illegally violating someone's privacy. Politicians frequently don't like their coverage; it's the purpose of the 4th Estate to hold them accountable, according to the US constitution. Other countries handle transparency differently. You seem like a person who might be happier in an authoritarian country, if in fact you don't already live in, and do PR for, one.
4
When Orban and his "Orbagarchs" have thoroughly looted Hungary, there is always an expensive estate for sale to them in Florida, until law enforcement catches up, if, at that future date, we still enforce laws in the US.
6
@Winston Smith they are not looting Hungary, unlike the socialist leaders of previous government. Thanks to Orban, the economy is thriving and the country was brought back from the rim of economical collapse where the previous -socialist- government left it. Without Orban, Hungary would have been a second Greece, with economy collapsed and the country overrun by millions of migrants.
2
@Evetke No mention of that free EU money that Orban seems happy to take...
1
My immediate reaction after reading this piece was how does the elimination of net neutrality under the Trump administration affect the ability of independent media to disseminate critical investigations? Everything seems fine right now, but little by little, just as in Hungary, an autocrat could direct the FCC to boost outlets favorable to the government while slowing to a crawl the feeds of those opposed. People are so used to speedy downloads that very few would wait around for even two minutes. We need to get net neutrality back, and all telecom and media companies should be on board if they value democracy!
75
In the end press is a business. Just like everything else that involves any money, it’s a business.
Readers are voters and these press outlets provide the narrative that it’s readers want.
Readers and consumers that do not want a segment of the press to flourish need to disown and boycott stations and press outlets that threaten our democracy.
Nothing ruins a business like no money due to loss of viewers, advertising, etc.
I do not and will not watch Fox and any person or product I know is aligned with Fox I boycott and let any outlets that ask know why.
Fox supports the current administration so I will not support the outlet in any way.
I consume news from outlets all over the world with many opposing views. Never Fox!
If each voter used and supported press outlets that fostered free speech and democracy there would be a whole lot less of Fox.
46
Orban has changed since his early days of finding Fidesz, the political party that once pushed for reform after the "wall" fell and Hungary became a democracy. The social safety net, such as it was which was fairly considerable in terms of services provided by the state; the economy had been called "goulash communism" for the liberties the Big Boys in Russia allowed the country to engage in from more private ownership in certain areas to other market considerations, crashed in re-entry into brutal market capitalism, no state help like before in the command economy. Hungary, a feudal country with a much-heralded parliament for some time, stumbled and Orban and the country took a turn to the right. In the absence of a strong and free press, it is no surprise the current conditions in the media have changed as they have. Still, that last paragraph is a stunner: Today there are more than 500 outlets owned by Orban's allies. In the photograph, Orban appears to need a new suit. In that and other ways, he resembles our POTUS. I hope that at least his tastes for food in the Hungarian style are better than hamburgers and diet Cokes.
5
@Katalina last time Hungary was a feudal country was in the 15th century. You should get your historic facts right first.
2
This is how the world works. It's not too different from the era of the caveman or even the gorillas with their silverback autocrat. The drive to power seems to be a male trait. Hence the battles between and within countries resembling the newcomer challenging the old man for the top spot. Today the world is dominated by a few countries (a few men) and rather than cooperate, they are at each others' throats. With ever more and (improved?) weapons this may end very badly.
I guess cooperation is a female trait. Mothers dread the horrible effects of war and will seek compromise instead. It's a more enlightened way favored by the maor religions. Hopefully it's not doomed to perish in this dog-eat-dog world.
10
@betty durso
Margaret Thatcher anyone?
6
@betty durso
Indira Ghandi, Maggie Thatcher, Golda Mier, and go back to Widow of Windsor. A host of other queens and empresses.
All of them bathed in blood and war.
It's power, not gender.
1
As an outsider looking in we find a nice country, nice people, reasonable government yet a society a few distend steps from real freedom. Could be called a friendly dictatorship.
Free press needs to live, survive, supported and be respected, I don’t mean that it needs to be agreed with but needs to be respected.
12
Orban is perhaps the greatest threat to EU as he stokes not only a brand of nationalism that borders on jingoism but has a clear agenda of irredentism and revachardism.
Read Trianon! The blight of history that does not go away.
Trianon, for Magyars, is the unsettled historical discontent that lays at the heart of national frustrations which Orban has been manipulating without scruples, one that morphed into a deranged ideological under current and a host of conspiracy theories (Soros) that Magyars bought into and Orban has succored without shame. Hungarian grievances become more unrealistic by the day; this also increases the corruption of the neighboring democracies, and weakens the eastern board of EU, as Putin intended.
And Trump role in all this rabid spread on hideous nationalism? Trump is the greatest threat to humanity, a threat of such magnitude that we have not come to realize its destructiveness.
30
@Nicholas can you let the Magyars rule their own country and not let any big country in the EU rule them instead? My name literally is Hungarian and my people know what is right for them. Hungary is for Hungarians. The Germans, the French, the Italians, or any other nation can't decide what we do, but they are trying to take our rights in the EU away and the speech Mr. Orbán gave two months ago before the assembly was quite right. I may not agree with him on many things, but what annoys me the most is how everyone attacks him for being right-wing... literally every Hungarian I met in the Szabólcs-Szatmár Bereg was right-wing because they absolutely despise what the Soviets did to their culture. There was many free press in Hungary and I even been to where tourists always go to and I saw the protests and posters, but those represent a minority of the people. To understand why a country is politically motivated in the way it is, one mudt understand its history. Hungary has always been a loser, whether looking at the Mongols, to the Turks, to the Hapsburgs, to the Nazis, to the Soviets, and now the EU. "No more" say the people and if that is the way they want it, then so be it. You cannot expect every European country to reform to the larger ones. Europe isn't a melting pot, but a hub where many many cultures and peoples live in countries that are smaller than most US states. So, for one to critic Hungary without having a basis on the WHY, is quite insulting.
6
@Nicholas -- At least part of Trianon will be reversed. When Putin falls upon Ukraine, the far western portion of her territories will be returned to Hungary. (Don't expect Trump to stop this.) That is among Orbán's goals; his quid pro / for undermining the EU's solidarity as quo.
@Bence Hungarians always lecture others about their history and hurl constant claims that they were "losers". However, a quick analysis shows that the Magyars, Asian horsemen, conquered the settled Romanians and Slavs of the Carpathian basin in 895 AD.. What followed in the next 60 years was a European onslaught at the hands of the marauding Magyars. 55 major Magyar expeditions in all directions, whether Normandy or Denmark, Portugal or Sicily... Pillaging was their craft, arrows their mean: "A sagittis Hungarorum libera nos Domine" was the cry of the day. The loot made the Magyars rich and vastly more powerful. They subjugated all their neighbors for hundred of years.
Trianon gave the majority of ethnic Romanians, Serbs and Slovaks living in their ancestral lands the right of self-determination.
And yet the Hungarians still claim these lands, contrary to incontrovertible historical realities that they were the aggressors and lords over subjugated people who eventually were given their rights.
What is needed is to leave history's ills behind and seek good relations with Hungary's neighbors and EU. Yet Hungary refuses to see the benefit in belonging to the large family of European nations who are forging a new social and political structure and instead is the thorn in EU's side and the enabler of Putin's attempts to weaken EU and deligitimize democracy!
3
In the US, we have freedom of the press - for everyone who owns one.
16
Democracy without full understanding, appreciation, and protection of fundamental rights can be called a "mockracy." Moving from a "mockracy" to democracy takes time during which the change will be challenged in many ways and forms, there will be periods of apparent success. But the true success for democracy relies on the masses agreeing to protect and exercise fundamental rights with the protection of the government. Unfortunately, there is a trend to move towards "mockracy" in the world.
Let us hope that we can educate and inform the masses to appreciate and respect the fundamental rights, soon!
4
I do not remotely like Trump but he has hardly attacked the idea of a free press. What he has done is relentlessly hammer on the bias of the news media, which is very real. If news media organizations want to prove this isn’t the case, what they should do is literally hire a prominent consultant like Deloitte for an external audit assessing their objectivity and fairness in reporting. Of course this will never happen since, oh I don’t know, facts like a failure to ever endorse a single Republican candidate in modern history are fairly telling of what the results would be. Trump is the result of poking the bear. Bush, Romney, McCain were all treated like garbage, then later held up, hypocritically, as icons of more civil times and post-facto “decent Republicans.” Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in what Bannon said; in essence, the modern news media is in a sense the opposition party to even very moderate center-right politics.
I don’t think anyone really believes the free press is in any danger at all. I think, however, there is increasing discomfort by those who create the news with the curtain being pulled back. It’s not that they are scared of anything. They are just outraged at the niceties that allowed them to slip around in the shadows being discarded. It is what it is, though, and in the long run it’s all good. Because in the end perhaps people will have no choice but to actually discuss policy.
13
@John I agree with you. The president has not attacked the standing of a free press, but he has called many outlets as Fake News because of the bias they are reporting to such a large population of viewers. Whoever controls the media, controls the people, and at this point, too much of the media is anti-right and anti-Trump. It is okay to have criticism of the president because A) we have a right for that and B) democracy (more so a republic) isn't a one-size fits all, so there will be disagreement. The problem is when the news literally bleeds anti-something and the other message is shunned. Our economy is doing well and the government has less control over the people than it did in years. People don't deserve something just because their neighbor has it, they deserve whatever they work for and shouldn't have anyone spoonfeed it to them. The same is for the media that only spews one message in the majority of its outlets.
5
Having your friend buy women’s stories and have them sign exclusive rights then never publishing bc their stories are unfavorable to you, that’s a subtle way of stifling the free press. Banning reporters from the White House, and lets not pretend it’s for being disrespectful bc trump disrespects everyone, for asking questions you don’t like, stifling the free press. Even the dreaded FOX agrees with that one.
10
@Bence Trump tells lies and Fox backs them up
and spreads them in their media. Other media
sources report on this arrangement and provides
facts that dispute the lies. So where is the anti-
Right and Anti-Trump in all this? Lies are lies.
13
I believe Freedom of the Press includes responsible reporting. Unfortunately, today, we have a very bias press, whether on the left or right. Reporting the news should not be based on entertaining your viewers or readers. Why not report the facts and then the journalist can state, very plainly, their opinion of the facts.
6
@Rod what does this even mean? Fox News is a biased media organization. Most others are not.
2
Good point. But they are all softer versions of fox, paid to spread views not news.
@Rod
"Why not report the facts and then the journalist can state, very plainly, their opinion of the facts."
Because journalists do not provide their opinion of the facts, but the facts themselves. If the fact contradict something a government official says, a journalist reports the contradiction, s/he does not give their "opinion" on the matter. Perhaps you should take a short refresher on the basic practice of journalism.
2
Hungary's cautionary tale will fall on deaf ears for most in the United States. Many of us are too busy consuming drivel from iPhones, watching reality TV shows, cheering on gladiatorial contests, paying hollow tributes to the flag and eating ourselves into early graves to notice the erosion of democracy.
Much of the citizenry in developed nations are anesthetized to the lurking dangers of authoritarianism. In the 20th century fascism was spawned by the economic aftershocks of WWI. In this century, fascism is growing because most citizens are too lazy and complacent to participate in civic duties and want a strongman with easy answers to fix everything for them.
I hope I'm wrong. But it seems only a cataclysm will wake people up. We are nearing that point in the U.S.
89
@Civic Samurai. Are there parallels here to the anti-vaccination crowd, who refuse to vaccinate their children in part because vaccines are so successful the crowd has no recollection of measles, polio, whooping cough, etc. and how awful they can be. That and conspiracy theories about autism and purposeful contamination. Has it just been too long since the last World War?
12
The lack of a free press is tantamount to an admission of tampering with democracy, and allowing a despot (Viktor Orban) to, step by step, slide into a fascist government intent in muzzling any healthy criticism, however constructive. Have they forgotten we are all corruptible 'a la Trump' when no sensible regulation/supervision is in place? And that all that is left is the price we are willing to sell ourselves for? I suppose that if there are political prostitutes in the United States (i.e. republicans under the tutelage of Mitch McConnell), Hungary is far ahead, by having bought a free press as it's political propaganda arm. This, incidentally, is not politics (the art of the possible), 'politicking' instead.
12
I see the beginnings of our own loss of press freedom not only in Trump’s constant attacks on the independent media, but on the widespread purchases of local TV stations by conservative, Trump-allied companies such as Sinclair. We need to become more strategic in trying to preserve not only the independence of the press, but its power to reach people and be heard.
72
@Linda and Michael
Maybe this is just a backlash to the extreme left? …CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, NYT and etc.
If we don’t want the right to take over the press when they are in control we should not give it to the left when they have control.
@Lee Zehrer
And I am guessing that by “extreme left” you mean anything to the right of Fox News? Authoritarian forces in this country have long Realitycharacterized viewpoints that didn’t mimic their own Supply-side, global warming denying fantasies as “Left Wing” to legitimize their own fantasies. That started in the 90’s and has now become the proud view of ditto-heads and Trump followers across the country.
Reality is not “left wing,” and neither are media like this newspaper which happen to be non-Fascist.
8
Any control of the press is anti “democratic” including political correctness, not using certain words or language, hate speech and etc. So it would seem that since it is the masses who want to control the press in effect we really have no free press and at the cost of the minority.
7
@Lee Zehrer
Please define "political correctness" and highlight an example of said "political correctness" that has caused censorship of the press.
Let me know EXACTLY which content you believe should be published, but is instead being censored by this "political correctness" boogeyman.
3
@Lee Zehrer Normally I would give someone like you a sarcastic "nice try," but yours is the classic non-argument of the right, conflating individual free speech with a free press, all while tacitly griping about your inability to call people offensive or mean-spirited names without getting called out on it, because of the right's favorite bogeyman, "political correctness."
One more time for those in the back: "free speech" was designed to protect you from government retribution or persecution. It DOES NOT protect you from a society that has decided to reject hateful speech.
3
I don't own shares in Deutsche Telekom, and it's not the responsibility of companies alone to support democracy, but what if the company hadn't caved in? and had lost the business but kept the website? our economic model doesn't allow managers to take these kinds of decisions as democracy doesn't show up on their balance sheet. would be nice, though.
22
"Orban wanted to introduce a regime which keeps the facade of democratic institutions but is not operated in a democratic manner — and a free press doesn’t fit into that picture."
It's painfully easy to see "Trump" - self-proclaimed friend of Orban - at the start of this sentence. That's a tragic given, two years into his role.
But while the article spotlights Orban's Origo control, it's also painfully easy to see our own media parroting Trump propaganda. We've suffered three years of Trump tweeting and rally propaganda - breathlessly repeated in the media - about "rapist migrants", "lock her up" chants from glowing faces at Trump rallies, and Trump's insults of democracy restoration donor Soros (a common enemy for both democracy-hating leaders). Every time Trump's or his followers' words are printed verbatim - without the more prominently included truth from a centrist source, instead of an obvious democratic mouthpiece that Trump's supporters can easily discard - we are doing no better here in the US.
I suggest, to combat at least some of Trump's propaganda, that his tweets should no longer be included in news articles. A political cartoonist should create a graphic with the him on his porcelain throne - with tweets dropping from his mouth into the porcelain bowl below, exactly where they belong. That would be front page material.
114
@common sense advocate
"him on his porcelain throne - with tweets dropping from his mouth into the porcelain bowl below, exactly where they belong. That would be front page material."
And an overdue revival of the great anti-royalist/anti-government scatological cartoons of the early 19th century...
17
@Indira Kate Twalam - exactly!
5
I've traveled around Hungary and visited Budapest several times. The country and people are wonderful. I no longer visit Hungary due to Orban. I don't want to support thugs and tyrants economically. I'll gladly return when he's gone.
82
@Anders We'll gladly welcoma you when he's gone.
Actually we would gladly welcome you anytime, but I can understand your concerns. For a bit of moment try to imagine how awkward the majority of citizens feel about being captured by a regime of thiefs and their herd of zombies. :(
6
@Anders
Anders, this is exactly how I feel about the United States under Trump.
8
Hungary is a warning sign for the United States, but only if Trump wins a second term. If, as most Americans hope, he loses in 2020, our vibrantly free press can continue.
53
@Demosthenes Why so sure all you have to do is unelect Trump? To me his Presidency has allowed a path forward for everything from fascism to mini fiefdoms throughtout the country. This isn't about one man, its about a culture of regression and fear. The idea of running against Trump by itself is not sustainable. The warning signs are everywhere in the world. Money and power is more concentrated every day in many ways- and this is what underlies it all. Perhaps a bigger unknown is what will a Democratic House do to move the equation for a brighter future.
33
@Demosthenes thanks to CNN, NBC, and other liberal media outlets, Trump is going to win in 2020. What the mainstream media are doing is a joke, they are actually helping him because of their hateful anti-Trump narrative. Raging about the president all day is no news, it's opinion, and people with common sense are tired of it.
1
@John Ferrari We need to take lessons from the midterms: That 8 million more people voted against trumpism than for it, that communities provided with starkly different candidates -- new dynamism reflecting people's real concerns v demogogic and sclerotic republicanism -- make intelligent decisions, that apathetic Americans got off their couches and participated in robust ways in this election, not just by voting but also by running and canvassing. We've brought in new blood at state and federal levels. We've elected all sorts of people on the left (GOP is still 90% white men).
I was hopeful yet pessimistic about what we could achieve and the results have heartened me considerably. Americans rose to many of our challenges. They've put in place a House that will act as a check in trump and his criminal cohorts. We're in better shape than I knew.
2