Media authority criticises media freedom reports for Hungary, citing bias and errors

The media freedom reports published on Hungary in 2024 have shown the shortcomings detected in earlier reports, the Hungarian media authority NMHH said in a report published on Wednesday.

NMHH surveyed reports published in 2024 by the Center for Media Pluralism and Freedom, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, and the Civil Liberties Union for Europe’s new Media Freedom Report. Systemic issues reported in the NMHH report in 2024 were mostly also present this year, such as a lack of transparency in choosing the persons preparing country reports and assigning scores, the authority said.

Freedom House reports are usually based on the assessment of one expert, while Reporters Without Borders has refused to divulge information on the people involved in assigning scores, the report said. Further, the reports often repeat statements about earlier years, pertaining to periods outside of the report’s scope, the NMHH report said. Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report and that issued by Reporters without Borders were also insufficiently sourced, it said.

The reports also contained factual errors and omitted important facts and circumstances, it said. CLU said that the Hungarian media act failed to prevent market concentration, and the Media Pluralism Monitor said that the legislation failed to protect certain vulnerable groups, neither of which was true, NMHH said.

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2 Comments

  1. Here is my media freedom report. Opposition media has been forced out of radio and can only exist on the internet. While in Hungary I witnessed an opposition radio internet broadcast being disrupted by a hacking attack. The sound of the broadcast kept fading in and out. Fidesz will do anything to stop the opposition from getting its’ voice heard. What do Hungarians hear on television except pro-Fidesz propaganda. Why did the leader of the opposition only get five minutes of time on television in the last national election? How can you have a democracy like that? What television exposure does the leader of the most popular political party Peter Magyar get? Is he interviewed? Does he get the opportunity to put forward his message on national televsion? If the media is monopolized into the hands of the governing party and does not do the job of pointing out faults in the government and put forward the message of the opposition you have no media freedom.

  2. You’re preaching to the choir, Larry. The Media Authority is not going to criticize Fidesz or the current government because they are Fidesz and the current government. Just look at the way they ignored the government’s dealings with Vodafone and now Digi and others. That kind of silent approval is not serving the public interests. It’s serving the current regime’s interests. Don’t look for any changes. It won’t happen.

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