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November 30, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Hungarian ruling party tightens grip on media
lishers, including Lapcom. After the acquisi- tion, 19 out of the 20 largest print newspapers in the country were in the hands of Meszaros. The number one spot belongs to a tabloid owned by Ringier.
A few hours later, Hungary’s most powerful oli- garch announced the transfer of his entire media business to a foundation called the Central Euro- pean Press and Media Foundation, which would serve as the new centralised body overseeing the entire spectrum of the right-wing media portfolio. Just a few hours later, some ten publishers also announced they will transfer all their stakes to the foundation in what seemed like a well-orchestrat- ed and organised move. There were no reports on the financial details of the transfers.
The new structure will create more synergy, lead to a more efficient operation and an unprecedent- ed concentration of power, analysts said. As the vast majority of the products in the portfolio would not survive under real market conditions, the foundation will have to inject billions of forints into them in the form of state subsidies to keep them afloat, they added.
The first reports on the centralisation of govern- ment-friendly media were published in the sum- mer after news emerged of huge financial short- falls after the takeover of Echo Tv by Meszaros.
The foundation will be controlled by Gabor Liszkay, who showed his loyalty to Orban on several occa- sions. Liszkay was the owner and chief editor of Hungary’s leading conservative daily until Febru-
ary 2015. He was bought out by Simicska after the oligarch’s salty burst out against the PM and went on to set up a new conservative daily from state funding, but the newspaper can barely be called
a success as it has a very small readership.
The foundation will be supervised by three mem- bers, one of whom is a former lawyer of Orban.
The odd one out
Laszlo Puch, the former cashier of opposition party MSZP and the owner of the sole opposition daily Nepszava, also sold his stakes in the agricul- tural weekly Szabad Fold, a well-known brand in rural Hungary with some 60,000 subscribers to
a company owned by Meszaros.
Puch, one of the most influential figures of the Socialist party, regained control of the debt-ridden newspaper in late 2016. He gave no reason for selling his stakes in the publisher which unlike many right-wing media groups generated hefty profits in 2017 without state ads. Local media says that he wanted to secure the future of
his leftist daily.
Some disagree with that concept, based on a
2016 meeting between Puch and Orban. Accord- ing to unconfirmed reports, the two met at a ranch owned by Meszaros, and Puch apparently received guarantees from the prime minister to keep Nepszava afloat. The daily has since received hundreds of millions of forints of ads from state- owned companies but government ad campaigns against Brussels and George Soros also feature heavily on its pages.
Government and media
After Orban’s college friend and long-time ally, Lajos Simicska, the former cashier of Fidesz, turned against him in February 2015, the PM