The last 24 hours have produced an immense amount of background information on the sudden collapse of Index, the largest and likely most influential of the Hungarian news sites. Among other things, we learned from a study conducted by 21 Kutatóközpont that, in terms of readership, Origo and Index are neck to neck among Hungarian internet news sites, each serving 28% of the country’s adult population. Index’s clientele is politically more balanced, being equally divided between pro- and anti-Fidesz readers (11% each), while Origo is frequented by more Fidesz voters (14%) than opposition sympathizers (8%). Among internet news sites, these two have the greatest political impact, which is what has worried Fidesz for some time.
But the more I read on the subject, the more my initial impression — that the destruction of Index was not in Viktor Orbán’s playbook — was strengthened. Almost a month ago, Pál Dániel Rényi of 444 wrote an article titled “The government would like to strangle Index surreptitiously,” an act that was presumably not initially intended to result in death. Tomorrow, in Magyar Narancs’s print edition, an article will appear which contends that the original Fidesz plan for a furtive takeover of Index was hijacked by Mária Schmidt, Viktor Orbán’s “court historian,” a wealthy woman whom Orbán has used at least once before to convert a respectable economic weekly into a Fidesz propaganda rag. She knew about Fidesz’s plan for a gradual transformation of the internet site and decided to act on her own. The result was the firing of the editor-in-chief and the subsequent resignation of practically all of its journalists.
You may recall that the drama at Index began when Gábor Gerényi, who, together with Péter Ungár, son of Mária Schmidt, owns Azonnali, an internet site which carries mostly opinion pieces, appeared on the scene as a business adviser. Rényi asserts that ever since the establishment of Azonnali in 2017, Schmidt and Gerényi have been in regular touch. Neither is Miklós Vaszily, the other important player in the story of Index, a stranger to Mária Schmidt. The Schmidt family’s business interests include a real-estate company where Vaszily is a member of the board. Therefore, it seems logical to assume that it was Schmidt who suggested Gerényi to Vaszily as an adviser who would solve the alleged financial problems of Index.
As attested to by people familiar with the case, Mária Schmidt “for years has been working on the destruction or at least taming of Index.” People close to Schmidt assert that the topic is an emotional one for her, which at times has revealed her ugly side. For example, she sent messages to László Bodolai, head of the foundation that is the owner of Index, intimating that if she managed to get rid of two of his predecessors, she could certainly handle him. At one point, the editorial offices of Index were in Flórián Court, which is owned by the Schmidt family company. She got rid of them by raising their rent sky high.
Of course, the repeated claim of the government that it had no role to play in this drama is true only as far as the final days of Index were concerned. I came to the conclusion, based on everything I read, that Mária Schmidt was largely responsible for the final outcome. It was she who, knowing about Viktor Orbán’s long-term plans, decided to act on her own. She became impatient and thought she could take care of the matter to everybody’s satisfaction. But it is doubtful that Mária Schmidt will get much praise for her meddling in the Index affair because Viktor Orbán “will no longer get what he craved most, a media that on the surface sounds critical but keeps silent on embarrassing matters while at the same time continues its relentless investigations of opposition parties and politicians.” According to inside information that reached HVG, Fidesz wanted to get the right to a “red button” to keep the diciest articles, like corruption cases involving Orbán family members, out of the news.
444, HVG, and Magyar Narancs are most likely on the right track when they suspect that the two left-handed Mária Schmidt is behind the boomeranged takeover attempt, but one can be certain that the official explanation will have nothing to do with these probable facts. Indeed, the official story is shaping up nicely. On July 24, Origo reported that the two leading opposition parties, Momentum and the Demokratikus Koalíció, waged an internecine war over the ownership of Index. The Fidesz propaganda hacks at Origo are quite capable of unabashedly creating stories out of thin air. This time, they even called the winner. Given their predilection for making Ferenc Gyurcsány, chairman of DK, responsible for everything, the paper announced that Gyurcsány was the winner. Index is his. A day later, Origo’s story changed a bit. At this point, quoting Bodolai, they reported that Szabolcs Dull, the dismissed editor-in-chief, had regular conversations with high-ranking left-wing party leaders, intimating that they conspired to kill Index. Soon enough, Origo seemed to know the opposition politician Szabolcs Dull had conspired with: Klára Dobrev, vice-president of the European Parliament, member of DK, and wife of Ferenc Gyurcsány.
Mária Vásárhelyi wrote an article titled “Mária Schmidt is the poor-quality female replica.” In this article Vásárhelyi expresses her astonishment that this woman, who has butchered practically every task she was ever entrusted with, is still getting important assignments from Viktor Orbán. The reason seems to be that she is, “although less cunning and shrewd, just as power hungry, vindictive, and cruel a troublemaker, with no moral inhibitions,” as her boss.
The dramatic and above all burlesque political entrées go on. And on.
The audience is well entertained. High expectations are primed for the next ordeal.
I completely agree with “Hungarian Spectrum” evaluation of the “court
historian”, Maria Schmidt. History as the Greek parent of history, Herodotus wrote came from the Greek word meaning something more like” investigation”. Certainly,Herodotus was curious about the structure,
customs and past of the then known world. Schmidt is neither capable of historical investigation, let alone she is a most uncurious individual.
How ironic, that she, Orban and the rest of the mafia regime regularly denounce liberal intellectuals in wild paranoid conspiracies. Actually, the capacity for conspiracy and theft is rooted in the mafia regime, especially, it’s so called court “intellectuals” such as Schmidt.
The so called Terror Museum set up by Schmidt was and/is a great symbol of how shallow her understanding of Hungarian communism was, let alone the diverse and complicated Hungarian fascists. One thing she got correct, they both utilized that building for torture. Looks like the Orban regime is continuing that topic via mind control.
The results will be just more of the same, people in Hungary have to live in a virtual world described in the Fidesz rags and learn a history that is false a caricature created by the gnomes monsters and even a female gargoyle of the Fidesz horde.
What an unflattering photograph . . . Someone has photoshopped out the fly that was at the end of her nose. That’s how I explain the expression, anyhow.
This is actually one of her better photos.
And if you see her angular composture and abrupt movement and hear her similar speach it’s even worse; gargoyle is close, encompasses character too.
“Origo and Index are neck to neck” surely, not “Origo and Fidesz”. (second sentence)
I spotted it too, it must be a lapsus.
Another typo: Among internet news sites, these two have the greatest greatest political impact…
It happens. Considering Eva writes everything herself (with a few exceptions which she always mentions) – she does an amazing job at proofreading her own texts.
You are correct. I am amazed at what Professor Balogh does with daily research, writing, editing etc. Some mistakes are inevitable, but my track record is not even close to her record for accuracy and insight.
In the following phrase, one should of course read Index instead of Fidesz: “in terms of readership, Origo and Fidesz are neck to neck among Hungarian internet news sites, each serving 28% of the country’s adult population.”
cross-eyed witch
Hungarians love a conspiracy theory. Who dunnit? Realistically, it simply does not matter. This further step in control of the media and information by the Orbán dictatorship is possible simply because of the distorted and corrupt business conditions created by the criminal regime that has rotted Hungary to the core. Rogán selling Hungarian residencies for his personal profit? Orban manipulating the billboards? “Farmer” Mészáros giving a home to 4000 mangalica pigs? Foci stadiums built on taxpayer’s money?
The state of Hungary is corrupt and controlled from top to bottom by our criminal dictator.
Nothing new to see here, folks.
“Origo and Index* are neck to neck among Hungarian internet news sites” [*my correction]
According to the just published “Digital News Report 2020” from Reuters, the situation is a little different and more important they have next to reach [readership] also trust scores.
Especially in the trust scores [trust and don’t trust] origo.hu is way behind the other 4 digital media:
media – weekly reach – trust score [don’t trust]
index.hu – 44% – 57% [18%]
24.hu – 42% – 55% [19%]
origo.hu – 34% – 45% [31%] least trusted!!
hvg.hu – 29% – 63% [15%]
444.hu – 29% – 48% [24%]
source: http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/hungary-2020/
full report at https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-06/DNR_2020_FINAL.pdf
PS: in previous reports Reuters had next to the surveys also a 1 page description for each country by a local specialist, unfortunately that disappeared from this latest report
The Index 44 and Origo 34 readers numbers seem much more realistic.
Origo.hu is now a vile propaganda site (has been for many years since Deutsche Telekom sold it to Orban’s front) and still its readership is in very significant part made up of opposition-leaning voters. Hungarian readers are extremely habitual, they had been reading origo.hu and so they keep reading it now even after the voice of the site changed years ago completely. Only, they are now exposed to a daily dose of “migrant terrorist disembowels pregnant white women in Germany after raping her”, “The old geezer Soros’ gay son is behind Momentum’s latest machinations” etc. etc. etc. I have tons of very opposition leaning friends of FB (almost all of the are) and those who were followers of index almost all of them are still today. Once they liked or followed a particular FB site, they will unlikely ever to de-follow and de-like, so they will forever receive index.hu news items only in a few months time the articles will be even more toned down, contain more critical news about the opposition etc. etc. Propaganda works, especially on the internet. Gerényi and Ungár (Schmidt’s son) only own Azonnali.hu on paper, nobody knows who is the real owner. Maria Schmidt can… Read more »
“….a media that on the surface sounds critical but keeps silent on embarrassing matters while at the same time continues its relentless investigations of opposition parties and politicians.” That is also true of the BBC’s reporter, resident in Hungary, Nick Thorpe, whose only article critical of the government is his most recent one about the takeover of Index. I suppose silencing the media is close to Nick’s heart. Maybe he should have written more honest and accurate articles about the countless violations of democracy and theft perpetrated by Orban throughout the years, rather than the half- truths and lies by omission, where information and facts damaging to Orban were largely left out. Nick’s aim, apparently, was to present balanced stories. How do you do that if you leave out important facts? And Nick,s hatred of Gyurcsany is evident in the snide remarks, sublty cloaked in polite languge but eviden nevertheless, which he occasionally makes theretby fulfillling Orban;s perfect media control, as stated above – pretend to tell a story, hide the real meaning and significance of it, and take a jab at the opposition, all in one go. And however good Index was, the BBC has a worldwide readership, so… Read more »
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth….blah, blah, blah”.
A loyal stalwart of the regime until quite recently. The cynical would say that his recent turning against the regime is down to the fact that the apparachiks are no longer supplying him with “free” lunches in various Andrassy eateries. The more positive interpretation is that he has finally remembered he is a journalist and not a court reporter.
What total rubbish. Nick Thorpe was and is a good professional journalist all his live. Yes, he personally was and is a conservative who utterly disagreed with the MSZP, Gyurcsány and the likes. But he started critisizing the Orbán government soon after the constitutional coupe d’etat at the end of 2010 and is a fervent ooponent of the regime for many years now. As have other conservatives such as Jeszensky Geza, Csaba Laszlo, Mellar Tamas etc. etc. And nobody ever gave “free lunches” to foreign correspondents.
“And nobody ever gave “free lunches” to foreign correspondents.”
You lost credibility there.
Maybe not that way around, but Thorpe turned the tables when he invited Orban to tea in his (Nick’s) own home, and Orban set out his strategy for dealng with ex communists, to which Thorpe replied that he would be happy to support him in that endeavor.
I am afraid you are very much mistaken. Anybody who speaks native English, is conversant with journalistic styles and has an understanding of life and politics in Hungary is always aghast reading the untruths, lies by omission, and just plain sloppy and misleading articles produced by Thorpe, the BBC’s in-house apologist for Orban.
Hank
Thorpe is either a foolish dupe or pretty corrupt, can’t be else if eg. he never noticed the elephant in the room, is the monumental institutionalized corruption of Orbán and his regime. How many critical pieces can you point to? (T’s bias may also have something to do with the interesting relation of the Englishmen to the Hu women).
@Observer, 10:43 am
Gosh, I smell a good story here. Please tell us what the “interesting relation of the Englishmen to the HU women” is. You got an inside line on that? I can’t wait…
Bimbi
Yes, I’ve witnessed interesting stories, but this is not a dating site nor marital advice forum. Sorry.
In order to limit the information available in Hungarian the Orban government will have to go much farther than just buying out news portals, because these can be created off shore if they need to be. In fact Soros or other progressive Hungarians could easily pay for such projects and the journalists could simply transfer their article electronically to the offshore portals. Could they have the reach of Index operating from off shore, yes easily if done effectively with modern marketing. Therefore, it is completely possible that Orban will attempt to create a Chinese type internet fire wall of some type, but that runs up against EU rules and the interests of Hungarian business which needs open access to information from global sources. Orban being the astute politician he is would create a limited fire wall using existing legislation that allows for limiting rumors related to Covid 19 or existing legislation relating to national security information. That would create a quandary for the EU because some nations are deeply concerned about Russian disinformation now coming into their countries and want to block some of that. Even Joe Biden might support blocking Russian information coming into the US if he is… Read more »
I agree with you Istvan that Orban may try to erect a firewall, let alone track opponents on the internet; however, the most talented hi tech. individuals don’t support Orban, so unlike China, I think this regime would find a fire wall hard to do. On the other hand, Iran has built its own fire wall, so you may be correct, especially if the regime creates a “limited fire wall”. “1984”.
Guys,
1. Huns have one of the lowest rates of internet use in EEurope.
2. Progressive Huns alone can’t sustain such projects, ie. without adds, eg. Klubràdio receives 150-250 mil/year in donations, but they are hanging on a string.
3. The regime extended the definitions criminalizing the “spreading of rumors or the publishing of facts (sic) which can potentially distress …” it was a wide open, catch all def, but I cant find the text now.
4. And two men were arrested, with camera crew on site !, for such offenses. Both were released later, after the intimidating footage was run everywhere for two days. Most Huns believe their internet activity is monitored and they are afraid, the regime has achieved its goal.
I appreciate the ethnographic insight into the somewhat chaotic inner life of the court but I think it would be really wrong if the lack of proper data and information about things Hungarian would lead us to chew such irrelevant gossip stuff in the coming years. BTW I agree with @Ferenc that the 21 institute’s survey data about index sounds quite dated. It was years ago that origo and index were neck and neck in reach. Last month, for instance, index.hu had 50 million visits (which made it number 5 in Hungary) while origo just 28 million (still good enough for number 8 in Hungary). Besides, virtually all the traffic on index.hu comes from people going directly to index, while more than a quarter of the origo traffic comes from referrals from Facebook, freemail, etc. – the reason why origo’s readership did not collapse even more spectacularly after 2014 was that a lot of visits to it were orchestrated by how Telekom set defaults on phones, internet subscriptions and even teletext options on television sets connected to their cable service. Since index does not have any of that crutch, its readership will fall faster even if the portal survives in… Read more »
Bodolai well-intended? I hate the word cognitive dissonance as it is used so many times in connection with Hungarian voters, but believing that Bodolai is well-intended at present is a complete delusion. Bodolai himself sold his 100% stake in Nanga Parbat Zrt. back in 2018 which company was the formal founder of the foundation he now presides over (the foundation being the sole owner of Index Zrt., the company operating the site). We don’t know the details (whether this sale was intended from the beginning when this whole structure was set up with Simicska, or how much Bodolai made on that deal, if any) but the fact remains that this company represented the sole legal leverage over him because the founder has special rights re the foundation. It is hard enough to withstand informal pressure from the Fidesz-power conglomerate (only Andras Simor comes to mind who did not resign despite the enormous pressures from the government to do so) but Nanga Parbat has legal rights to remove Bodolai, even if on paper the rights are limited (but Orban can amend the Civil Code at any time to broaden those rights, if need be). Bodolai knows this reality (that he is… Read more »
Gergely Dudas, former editor in chief of index, claimed nobody has asked from Bodolai why he had to sell Nanga Parbat Zrt. (owning which was a kind of legal security for him in the complex setup) to Fidesz?
At least I raised this crucial issue.
Moreover Magyar Narancs claims that Bodolai met together with top fidesznik Ziegler several times with Vaszily at Vaszily’s offices at TV2.
The more we learn, the more it’s clear that Bodolai is terribly unattractive person.
We have little choice but to conclude that Bodolai basically was a double-agent working for Fidesz for at least 2 years while pretending to be a cool, undergroundish, down-to-earth, liberal guy (LMP’s delegate into the National Election Commitee, regular Tilos Radio and ÉS contributor etc.). Like in the case of Philby many in the community whom B apparently betrayed now still vouch for his reliability.
I only wonder who recruited him and what was his price?
Thanks for the “fresh data” link.
I think the only category in the last years, in which origo.hu scored higher than index.hu was:
–mentioned by “public” M1 Hirado [“news”] as source of its “news” item
I did not know but on ATV Bodolai called Vaszily – the most trusted and loyal media honcho of the Fidesz media empire who was assigned the direct task to solve the Index problem – quote: “my friend”.
Bodolai could’ve said, well we have serious differences in opinions but we still get along well, or whatever, but nope, Vaszily is a friend.
As they say in Hungarian, “Embert barátjáról…”
OT – corona in US A week ago I also started to collect and make sense of corona data for the US: *since early June was a steady increase in daily cases *since early July a steady increase in daily deaths *about 1.5 week ago that steady daily increase changed into a stable daily figure My conclusions: *developments for Corona cases and deaths are directly related and now there’s a time delay of more than 4 weeks between those [earlier this time delay was less, mainly caused by limited testing at the beginning of the pandemic] Based on the above I made predictions for the number of Corona deaths till Aug.18 [4 weeks after I started Jul.21]: –date – my prediction – tot.Corona deaths –Jul.21 – start – 145,459 –Jul.28 – 151,961 – 152,355 –Aug.04 – 159,463 – ?? –Aug.11 – 167,966 – ?? –Aug.18 – 177,469 – ?? After Aug.18 I expect the number of daily deaths to change from steady increase in to stable figure [ same as what happened now with the number of Corona cases], but want to see first how above predictions work out before making any for after Aug.18. PS: I use the… Read more »
One might ask, why does Ferenc comment this now?
Well there’s the [in]famous quote by djT [March 30]:
“So we have between 100 and 200 thousand [deaths], and we altogether have done a very good job.”
Imho djT’s nightmare is that the number of Corona deaths in the US will go over 200,000… during his [re]election campaign…
Ferenc
The Donald also said that “we had two beautiful wars..” WW1 and WW2, I guess huge heaps of dead people excite that idiot, they are big, the biggest, and tremendous …
Re: the unnecessary US dead
Brings up founding father Franklin when working on that eminent document the Constitution of the US. He saw Washington in a seat that had the sun right behind his back .
He commented..‘….often in the course of the Session , and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue , looked at that behind the President without being able to tell that it was rising or setting. But now at length I have a happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun’.
A purported statesman just cannot make a ‘fit’ into Washington’s ‘chair’. That is just too much to be stuffed into it. . And even if it did have a sun in the back it probably wouldn’t be difficult to see all the dark circling around it.
One thing the Fidesz organization must be credited for, is the ability to dig up and promote people who are grotesquely specialized in being unsuited for any kind of public service.
They manage to add a spectacular dimension of bizarre theatrics to the entire field of public administration and leadership, and their national media reflect that absurd cirkus with unfailing accuracy.
The faithfull paying audience applauds and renew their subscriptions, and are blessed with lavish encores in return.
OT „EU rejects subsidies for Polish cities because of discrimination
Six municipalities in Poland are not allowed to participate in a town twinning programme. According to the EU Commission, they had declared themselves “LGBTI ideology-free zones”.
“Because of their attitude towards LGBTI persons, the EU Commission has refused six Polish municipalities participation in a subsidised town twinning programme. According to EU Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli, the rejected applications from Poland are cities that have declared themselves “LGBTI ideology-free zones” or signed a “Charter of Family Rights”, which among other things defines marriage as a union exclusively between a man and a woman. They had applied for grants of between 5,000 and 25,000 euros to promote partnerships with municipalities in other EU countries.“ https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2020-07/lgbti-polen-diskriminierung-eu-zuschuesse
At least a small sign – what about Hungary?
And a German city already some days ago declared their partnership/friendship with a Polish “LGBT”-free city void.
I might even have linked to this already.
Yes I read it, it’s a start.
Thanks Wolfi. You and Don are doing a great service in keeping us up to date regarding human rights for LGBT individuals.
Given the ruthless persecution of LGBT individuals under fascism and communism, we can see the great company that the Polish and Hungarian regimes share.
Thanks for this important news. The EU action is a step forward for human rights.
The government’s position on reducing the Index: Gyurcsány
Soon the shutdown of #444hu ?
I read an opinion piece in Magyar Nemzet this morning that had a nice photo of the German Leopard tanks (https://magyarnemzet.hu/velemeny/leopardokkal-a-hadero-modernizalasaert-8440251/) which Hungary has purchased. This opinion piece reflects the reality of Hungarian journalism because it provides no analysis of the point of Orban’s purchase of new weapons systems. Four Leopard 2 A4 tanks arrived in Tatarstan last week to be attached to the 25th György Klapka Rifle Brigade and by 2025 Hungary will acquire 44 of these tanks. I expected the opinion piece might explain why Hungary is acquiring heavy armor operated by humans when every indicator is that both Russian and US armor will transform into robotic armor forces with time. Even Milrem, an Estonian robotics company is getting in on this transformation with its Type X drone is a new robotic combat vehicle (RCV) equipped with either an 25 or 30-millimeter auto cannon or anti-tank missiles (see https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a32947926/type-x-robot-combat-vehicle/). While the Russian and US military will likely keep a humans in some tanks for the foreseeable future, robots could share a human tank crew’s work load, It is likely in the near future a single battle tank might command a swarm of smaller robots scouting ahead in its path, alerting… Read more »
“I expected the opinion piece might explain why Hungary is acquiring heavy armor operated by humans when etc.”
Do you really expect from OV’s private Magyar Nemzet to give any serious information or even thoughts about why? Come on Istvan, please.
But as you couldn’t get what you expected from MN, herewith my [5 cents] opinion about it:
–OV will have increasing unemployment numbers
–OV wants to increase his army, so what’s easier than to fill his barracks with unemployeds…
–OV has to buy something from the German state, so why not tanks…
–OV’s new recruits have to do something, so now after some training they can go “kocsikázni”…
Istvan Ch
Hu defense slending was 1% GDP and even 0.8 earlier. The US has been pushing NATO allies to chip in with their 2% share.
I can’t imagine that the Leopard tanks were not co-ordinated with NATO command.
Robot combat vehicles will take some time to get tested, approved and integrated in any significant numbers, say 10 years at least. What until then ?
Re: Ms Schmidt and the entrapment of Magyar media ‘You will do us the justice to remember that he that denies the right of every man or woman to his/her own opinion makes a slave of them because he precludes their right of changing their own minds’. Thomas Paine, American patriot arguing for always a free and unfettered press which speaks for the people in a free society. Justice on media rights cannot obviously be served then when ‘old media’ such as magazines, newspapers, tv, and radio as well as their technological ‘children’ the new media of pc’s, cable and the Net are constantly corralled to provide only a one-sided interpretation of events and opinion of the country and also of the world. Ironically the more interconnected the world has become we can see the efforts of many governments to clip the connections of virtually instantaneous communications. This is the antithesis of having the free flow of information always coursing through a democratic society. And it is a danger since it disrupts the ‘conversations’ among the citizens themselves. And interfering government in media affairs places corrosion in those communications. Magyarorszag at this point is failing in its communication ‘ministry’ because… Read more »
As I posted above the Orban strategy of limiting information in the Hungarian language will need to become more expansive than just buying out media outlets. As wrfree correctly notes there is an international globalization of information and AI based translation systems are becoming better every day and google makes good money providing them as attachments to their existing search engine.
It is a quandary for Fidesz, but I am confident team Orban will devise new attempts to limit information Hungarians have access to in the months and years to come.
At stake here is not ‘limiting information’ but controlling the public opinion. It is isn’t that you there in US get different information by watching CNN, NBC, MSNBC, etc. It is the same leftist drivel on all these channels but the point here is that the liberal media covers 90% of the American media.
People (the vast majority) don’t think anything to begin with. They take their cues from the media about what they are supposed to believe, what they are supposed to praise and what to be outraged about, etc..that is, what they should claim that they believe and uphold in order to be regarded as respectable, citizens in in good standing.
That’s what people care about and what they need to be cued about, not about who’s ‘really right’, Plato or Aristotle, Robert Hermann or Arpad Nagy.
The goal here is the marginalization of some views and, respectively, the mainstreaming of others, not the raw info as such.
It is quite obvious that the attention to media freedoms today is not strong at all in Magyar political society as compared to the US. Of course this is due to quite different histories. The events of ‘89 possibly could have had the country to ‘love and live’ in media freedom but it got backtracked as the drive to censorship most often than not seems to have taken precedence. There never has been real feeling in thoroughly defending it. If there were we would not be witnessing the dismantling of media outlets piecemeal and in the fashion of how they have disappeared. Re: the education of media freedom in CE. Perhaps CEU could implement the ‘Thomas Paine Chair of Media Enlightenment’ in its communications curriculum. It could be an important step to broaden and provide insight into a concept which empowers democratic societies rather than impoverishing them. Media freedom and opinion should be stellar in democracies. They must sit high. The whole structure rests on it. Without it a country will only get an electorate that will condition themselves more and more to eventually speak without thinking. And consequently it will be a boring society when there will be just… Read more »
Ovidiot, you made my day.
of course for a fascist like you everything else is “leftist drivel” …
I’ve mentioned here several times the breadth of political positions in the German press eg but for you little fascist …
And in Hungary you see a multitude of media?
You’re right about “the goal is marginalization of some..”, or rather ALL views which differ from those of the regime, and yes it’s about “controlling the public opinion” by all such regimes, hence Orbàn’s takeover and control of 90+% of Hu media (except for internet, but he’s working on the latter).
Further more, facts and science are not allowed to stand in the way, hence the new “institutes” trying to disguise propaganda as science, the communists did it better, they called their political system “scientific socialism” to disguise the dump dictatorship they were running…Orbàn took cue.
Az emberi agy furcsa vicceket csinál, a cikk címét első pillantásra “Mária Schmidt meghibbant”-nak olvastam…
You’ve made my day. “Meghibbant” means “got unhinged”
I think that the Magyar Narancs article is well written and is in line with what I heard and has good eyes for material legal and business aspects.
The only questionable part is the ending: Maria Schmidt’s involvement but it really doesn’t matter who exactly from Fidesz started the process this summer. It was people in the Fidesz power conglomerate’s highest echelon and that is indisputable.
Agree, couldn’t have happened without poliitbureau approval, I guess some Fid big shot thought this would please Orbàn or have presented or insinuated that the approval i
Cont.
…the approval has been given, Schmidt alone couldn’t have ordered and completed this operation. I don’t exclude an order from Orbàn to eg. do something about the irritating Index.
This is not happening without Orban’s nod, he is a micromanager, a workaholic like Stalin was.
The typos a yesterday might have been due to the incredible heatwave and humidity we have been experiencing around here. And it is not getting any better.
feel with you for the “inhumane” weather conditions
but on the positive side, it’s better that than a viruswave!
Well, here near Esztergom it’s really hot now too!
32 Celsius i e 90 Fahrenheit – but the air is really dry so we have to water our plants (flowers, vegetables, young trees …) twice a day.
Getting up before 6 o’clock for work in the garden – sitting at the computer during the heat …
The good new:
We don’t have to use tap water for watering – we have a “kut” and an electric water pump like all our neighbours …