Some of the worst attacks on press freedoms take place within the EU

It was one of the last remaining independent publications in Hungary. Now it is seemingly on its way to becoming just another government mouthpiece.

Last week, with little attention or fanfare, Index fell victim to the machinations of the far-right authoritarian regime of Viktor Orban. The news website’s editor-in-chief, Szabolcs Dull, was fired on 22 July in a move that, according to Human Rights Watch, “has political interference written all over it”. The resignations of senior journalists followed. Orban won.

It would be bad enough if the destruction of Index, which came three months after an Orban crony bought a 50 per cent stake in the company that controls its ad revenues, was an isolated incident. It’s not. According to Human Rights Watch, Hungary’s state broadcaster has purged or fired over 1,600 employees over the last 10 years, including journalists who refused to mouth government talking points.

It is all part of a worrying trend against press freedom and media diversity in the Balkans and central Europe, where a band of surging right-wing would-be despots and their oligarch allies have all but declared war on the independent press.

In April, Poland, also under the spell of an authoritarian right-wing government, fell to its worst-ever ranking on the World Press Freedom Index, below Armenia, Niger and Papua New Guinea.

Bulgaria ranks even lower, with oligarchs denuding news outlets of credible independent journalists. One famous investigative journalist, Miroluba Benatova, has been blacklisted by all media outlets and now makes a living driving a taxi. “Corruption and collusion between media, politicians and oligarchs is widespread in Bulgaria,” said Reporters Without Borders.

Romania this year gave itself “emergency powers” to shut down news outlets that the government deems as publishing “fake news” in what campaigners describe as the latest in a series of worrying assaults on the press.

All these countries are members of the European Union, which purports to uphold freedom of expression and freedom of the press as basic rights. But not a single one of the rulers acting against press freedom has suffered any diplomatic or economic consequences. It’s no wonder they keep pushing.

Yours,

Borzou Daragahi

International correspondent