Hungarians protest state media 'propaganda factory' and demand unbiased press

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Hungary's public media corporation on Saturday to demonstrate against what they say is an entrenched propaganda network operated by the nationalist government at taxpayer expense.

The protest was organised by Hungary's most prominent opposition figure, Peter Magyar, and his upstart TISZA party, which has emerged in recent months as the most serious political challenge for prime minister Viktor Orban since he took power nearly 15 years ago.

Magyar, whose party received nearly 30 per cent of the vote in European Union elections this summer and is polling within a few points of the governing Fidesz party, has been outspoken about what he sees as the damage Orban’s “propaganda factory” has done to Hungary’s democracy.

“What is happening here in Hungary in 2024, and calling itself ‘public service’ media, is a global scandal,” Magyar told the crowd in Budapest on Saturday. “Enough of the nastiness, enough of the lies, enough of the propaganda. Our patience has run out. The time for confrontation has come.”

Both Hungarian and international observers have long warned that press freedom in the central European country was under threat, and that Orban’s party has used media buyouts by government-connected business tycoons to build a pro-government media empire.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders estimates that such buyouts have given Orban’s party control of some 80 per cent of Hungary’s media market resources. In 2021, the group put Orban on its list of media “predators,” the first EU leader to earn the distinction.

On Saturday, Balazs Tompe, a protester who had travelled several hours to attend the demonstration, called the state media headquarters a “factory of lies”.

“The propaganda goes out at such a level and is so unbalanced that it’s blood boiling, and I think we need to raise our voices,” he said. "It’s nonsense that only government propaganda comes out in the media that is financed by the taxpayers.”

A retired teacher from southern Hungary, Agnes Gera, said dissenting voices were censored from the public media, limiting Hungarians' access to information about political alternatives.

“It’s very burdensome and unfortunate that the system works this way where the public only hears from one side and don’t even know about the other side,” she said.

Mr Magyar demanded the resignation of the public media director, and echoed complaints from many opposition politicians that they are not given the opportunity to appear on public television to communicate with voters.

He called his supporters to another demonstration on 23 October, a national holiday commemorating Hungary's failed revolution against Soviet domination in 1956.