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The closure of Népszabadság (People’s Freedom), which was founded during Hungary’s abortive popular uprising against Soviet domination 60 years ago, has reignited criticism over Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s legal curbs on media independence.
Mediaworks abruptly shut Népszabadság in October and local media speculated the publisher might be sold on to Opimus, a marginal player on the Budapest stock exchange but seen as close to an Orban ally.
Austrian businessman Heinrich Pecina’s Vienna Capital Partners told state news agency MTI that Opimus had made an offer after Népszabadság’s closure which Mediaworks blamed on financial difficulties and said was temporary.
Népszabadság’s deputy editor in chief said Mediaworks’ business arguments did not hold up and that the daily was closed down because of articles critical of the Orban government.
Orban’s spokesman Bertalan Havasi told Reuters: „Opimus is an open, exchange-traded company. It has several owners and invests extensively. The government does not wish to comment on any Hungarian company’s investments.”
Miklos Hargitai, a Népszabadság journalist, told the Associated Press that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has been the only one since the end of communism in 1990 „which doesn’t tolerate any control or criticism, not even questions.” He noted that Orban hadn’t given an interview to the paper in 10 years.
Since Orban came to power in 2010, many print and online publications as well as radio and television stations have come under the control of Orban’s inner circle and adopted a largely unquestioning pro-government stance.
For example, some 95 per cent of airtime on the recent refugee referendum endorsed the government’s position, according to the research group Democracy Reporting International.
