Hungarian journalist warns of 'doomsday scenario' as country's largest independent news outlet taken over

'If there are any changes... we will notify the world as loud as we possibly can,' say staff after supporter of party in government takes control of website

Chris Baynes
Monday 24 September 2018 14:16 BST
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Attila Toth-Szenesi, editor-in-chief of Hungary's Index, warned of a 'doomsday scenario'
Attila Toth-Szenesi, editor-in-chief of Hungary's Index, warned of a 'doomsday scenario'

Staff at Hungary’s largest independent news outlet have warned of a “doomsday scenario” after the website was taken over by a supporter of a government coalition partner.

The new owners of Index have vowed not meddle in its editorial policies, but its journalists said they were braced for “war”.

Dozens of newspapers, radio and television stations critical of prime minister Viktor Orban have changed hands in the past four years. Some have subsequently closed down, while others swiftly and dramatically changed their editorial outlook.

On the day news channel Hir TV was taken over last month, one of its new owners, Zsolt Nyerges, assured the newsroom he would not interfere with its work.

That evening, programmes including a hard-hitting political talk show were cancelled. In its place, speech by Mr Orban was broadcast on a loop.

Last week, the European Parliament voted to punish Hungary for flouting rules on democracy, corruption and civil rights, including media freedom.

An European Union (EU) parliamentary report said media had been concentrated in the hands of pro-Orban oligarchs, state-funded advertising went largely to outlets loyal to the government, and journalists were often banned from parliament.

Hungary’s government has denied undermining press freedom and insisted it has no desire to control the media. It is taking the EU Parliament to court, accusing it of breaching voting rules.

One of Index’s new owners Gabor Ziegler, insisted the publication’s independence was guaranteed.

“We have no right to interfere with daily editing or the paper’s contents,” he said in an interview with Napi, one of a number of smaller websites clustered around Index that Mr Ziegler and his partner also acquired. “We need an independent, widely read and decidedly high-quality Index.hu to achieve our business goals.”

Mr Ziegler and media investor Jozsef Oltyan gained ultimate control over Index by buying media group Cemp-X Online Zrt, which sells its advertising space, as well as the company owning the foundation intended to guarantee Index’s editorial freedom.

Mr Oltyan is a member of a party in coalition with Mr Orban’s ruling Fidesz, while Mr Ziegler has been a staff member on Index’s business side for nearly two decades.

Index’s editorial line has not changed since the takeover last week, but staff are on the alert.

A statement signed by 88 employees likened the situation to a war. They have set up a website, with no ties to the Index domain, showing dial running from “independent” through “in danger” to “not independent”. The dial currently shows independent

"If there are any changes... we will notify the world as loud as we possibly can," the staff statement said.

Chief editor Attila Toth-Szenesi said that his fellow journalists were tense.

“We would like to work peacefully,” he said. “It is not good for anyone for us to be the news.”

Mr Toth-Szenesi said he was concerned that the ownership change could bring Index under the influence of Fidesz and its ideological agenda known as the National System of Cooperation (NER).

NER was launched in 2010 to counter liberal values and champion nationalist policies. Under its auspices some of Mr Orban’s friends and family have won an increasing share of publicly funded business.

“What seems to be the doomsday scenario may be reality,” Mr Toth-Szenesi said. “It may in fact be the NER approaching Index right now.”

Mr Ziegler denied this.

“I would like to reject that in the strongest possible terms,” he wrote in an emailed response to Reuters. “We decided freely to buy [the companies that own Index]; there is nobody behind us.”

He added that nobody had the option to buy the companies in the future, and they wanted to hold on to them for the long term.

Mr Oltyan did not respond to requests for comment.

Since Mr Orban was re-elected for a third straight term in a landslide election in April, the pace of news outlets changing hands has accelerated.

Political loyalty has paid off for dozens of titles that have toed the government line. Those that back Mr Orban get more state advertising spending, media researchers said.

About 10 per cent of state online advertising spending goes to Index, which is politically centrist and takes a liberal stance on many social issues. Its closest rival, pro-government Origo, gets about 80 per cent, a proportion that shot up after its takeover by a pro-government group in 2015, according media analysis group Mertek.

In April, one of Hungary’s two national opposition dailies will shut down due to financial problems. The 80-year-old Magyar Nemzet was owned by tycoon Lajos Simicska, a former ally of the right-wing nationalist prime minister who fell out with him and became one of his staunchest opponents in the election campaign.

Mr Simicska’s media holdings, once highly profitable, incurred heavy losses after his publications were deprived of government advertising.

Asked about state advertising revenue, Mr Ziegler told Napi: “If the change of ownership means we have an easier time, we will take advantage of opportunities more easily.”

Viktor Orban re-elected as Prime Minister of Hungary

Revenue from state adverts at TV2, Hungary’s second largest commercial channel, more than tripled in 2016 after Mr Orban’s ally Andy Vajna took over, research company Kantar said, while state income stayed flat at levels far below TV2’s at market leader RTL.

“Many commercial advertisers publish ads in pro-government media that is watched or read by hardly anyone,” media analyst Attila Batorfy said. “We can call that lobbying money. Things like reach or visitor numbers make no difference, replaced by an adjustment to government. This is harmful on every level.”

As the media landscape narrows, more Hungarians have turned to Index. Average daily visitor numbers so far this month are up 20 per cent from the same period in 2017, to 630,000, according to figures from web-monitoring service DKT.

Mr Orban is scathing about the website, which has carried investigations into alleged government corruption and editorials criticising his anti-immigration, anti-European Union rhetoric.

At a public event in May, the prime minister met a question from one of its reporters with: “I won’t answer to fake news factories”.

Hir TV, meanwhile, continues to follow the government’s cue.

“The EU wants to strip Hungary of the right to defend our borders,” said the main story on its website after the European Parliament’s censure vote.

For Gabor Varga, an investigative journalist at the station who quit last month, it was deja vu. He had previously worked at Nepszabadsag, the country’s top daily, until another ally of Mr Orban bought the newspaper then shut it in 2016.

Mr Varga is looking for another job in journalism but with more than a dozen newsrooms recently disbanded, his options are limited.

“Lots of my fellow journalists have become political activists of sorts, and I will not follow them,” he said. “I believe in objective, balanced journalism. That doesn’t work in Hungary.”

Four prominent media outlets were caught up in a public feud between Mr Orban and Mr Simicska, who also owned Hir TV and the conservative magazine Heti Valasz.

After Mr Simicska broke with Mr Orban in a public spat in 2015, private advertisers followed a state ad moratorium and withdrew from Heti Valasz. A one-billion forint ($3.6 million) profit in 2014 became a 900-million forint loss in 2017.

In July, the media mogul sold the ailing magazine to Nyerges at the same time as Hir TV. Despite interest from investors in buying Heti Valasz, Nyerges shut it down within weeks.

Last October, David Kostelancik, then the top US diplomat in Hungary, said the country’s independent journalists “face pressure and intimidation” from the government, noting that the government directed substantial advertising contracts to friendly media outlets.

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned Kostelancik to the ministry and said the comments were “uninvited interference in Hungarian internal politics.”

The next month, Washington announced a programme “to increase citizens’ access to objective information” by awarding a grant of up to $700,000 (£530,000) to a provincial news organisation.

Ferenc Nimmerfroh, fired from editing a local daily in Pecs, southern Hungary, soon after premier Mr Orban’s close friend bought it in early 2017, was hopeful his application to launch a website with a string of regional newsrooms would win.

As Hungary’s relations with the United States warmed after the election of president Donald Trump, Mr Nimmerfroh said he began to fear the programme was doomed. In July, the US State Department scrapped the scheme before the grant was awarded.

Ambassador David Cornstein told the The New York Times in August that the US had reconsidered its overall view of the subject.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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