Fears for Hungary’s independent media as newspaper shuts

ONE of Hungary’s two national opposition newspapers was due to close today due to financial problems, its publisher said, in a sign of rapidly deteriorating prospects for media freedom after the landslide re-election of Viktor Orbán.

The closure of Magyar Nemzet will be a milestone in the disappearance of independent media in Hungary that western EU leaders and international rights groups say underlines the country’s slide into authoritarianism.

The 80-year-old daily newspaper is owned by Lajos Simicska, a tycoon and one-time ally of the Right-wing nationalist prime minister who fell out with him and became one of his staunchest opponents. Simicska’s media holdings incurred heavy losses after the fall-out and his publications were deprived of government advertising.

The timing of the announcement, two days after Orbán won a two-thirds majority for the third time with the ability to amend the constitution to entrench his power, suggests the newspaper’s closure had political dimensions.

The publisher was also due to close Lanchid Radio, a sister radio station.