In Hungary, media groups close to sovereign prime minister Viktor Orbán have purchased various newspapers including flashing, the most widely read tabloid in the country. The acquisition is seen as further weakening press freedom in the country, which has been compromised for years, but is also a sign of concern among Orbán’s allies ahead of elections next April. This is the first time in 15 years that Orbán’s party, Fidesz, is at risk of defeat: it was overtaken in the polls by Tisza, the party led by Péter Magyar, the main opposition politician.
Blink it has a monthly audience of three million people (Hungary has just under ten million inhabitants). It was owned by the Swiss company Ringier, which sold it to Indamedia, a group controlled by businessman Miklós Vaszily. He is a childhood friend of Orbán and among other things the CEO of a pro-government TV channel (TV2).
Orbán has been in office since 2010 and has ruled Hungary in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Purchase Blink it’s a symbol of modus operandi that left many of Hungary’s major media outlets under government influence: through a careful campaign of acquisitions, mergers and closures, conglomerates close to Orbán controlled more than 500 newspapers. The group is called the Central European Press and Media Foundation, but is better known by the acronym KESMA.
This concentration has led to standardization: a famous case occurred in 2018, when the day before the elections, all local newspapers KESMA published the same propaganda interview with Orbán.
Screenshot of a local newspaper’s homepage, from an article by 444one of the few newspapers not controlled by the government (the title is an automatic translation from English)
Operations for purchases Blink financed with a loan to Indamedia in Hungarian forints equivalent to 33 million euros from a bank, MBH Bank, where businessman Vaszily is chairman of the supervisory board. Former director Blink Ivan Zsolt Nagy said, as far as he knows, Indamedia made an offer above market value. After the acquisition of Zsolt Nagy left his position.
Both Indamedia and Swiss company Ringier have been involved in other similar cases. In 2014 Ringier was sold Not againa historical newspaper of the Hungarian left and one of the most authoritative newspapers in the field of politics, which was soon closed by its new owner. Indamedia plays an important role in aligning government Indexwhich until 2020 was the last major independent newspaper (at which time the editorial team left to found a new paper, Telex).
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Blink it is a tabloid, although under the direction of Zsolt Nagy differentiates its offering and also covers politics and economics. Together BlinkIndamedia took over the popular women’s magazine from Ringier, Captivating. The meaning of this operation is to increase influence on the demographic groups reached by this newspaper: women and society, especially the elderly, who live in rural areas and have historically been one of Fidesz’s main constituencies.
Demonstration against closure Not againwith newspaper copy, in October 2016 in Budapest (EPA/MOHAI BALAZS)
In Columbia Journalism Review former director Zsolt Nagy explains it with an old Hungarian joke, which says that workers in Soviet washing machine factories always produced Kalashnikov machine guns: “By the same logic, Hungarian newspapers bought by Orbán’s business cronies always echo government propaganda.”
Zsolt Nagy explains it Post that this latest acquisition is very strategic for the pro-government media empire. “They won’t be the backbone of propaganda, but they will make it softer and therefore more effective.” He cited an interview given exclusively by Orbán to Blink after the acquisition, about the meaning of some of the drawings he made during the TV program and became a source of curiosity. “It’s a way to stay in people’s minds without talking about the country’s problems.”
The former director said that Blink he was invited to Orbán’s recent visit to the United States, and this was also something new: the government only allowed journalists from media they considered friends to participate. On November 14, the tabloid ran an article on its homepage celebrating Orbán’s alleged success during his meeting with President Donald Trump.
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