Hungary's state broadcaster suspends news broadcast for reformulation after years of Orbán government

Hungarian state television temporarily suspended its news broadcast this week to implement a revamp that reportedly makes it "independent and trustworthy" after years of the Orbán government.
On Tuesday (7), the main TV channel, M1, began showing a black screen advertisement with the message:
"Public service media cannot lie. We apologize for doing this for so many years."
According to reports from other media outlets in Hungary, some editors from state TV and radio stations were fired after the arrival of a new interim management at headquarters.
Hungary's parliamentarians face a turbulent summer in the face of Prime Minister Peter Magyar's plans to dismantle the political system built by his predecessor, Viktor Orbán, over 16 years of hegemony.
Some experts and human rights groups are already criticizing the speed and scale of Magyar's measures to dismantle practices and institutions who protected Orbán's self-styled "anti-liberal" democracy, praised by American President Donald Trump and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Since taking power on May 9, after largely defeating the former nationalist leader, Magyar has launched a series of measures to eradicate Orbán's "mafia" from command of the Hungarian state.
In addition to being popular, the pro-European conservative leader's initiatives to overcome the conflictual relationship of Orbán with the European Union are key to unlocking 16 billion euros (R$102.4 billion) in frozen European funds.
Magyar's Tisza party has a two-thirds majority in Parliament and, in recent weeks, approved a broad package of anti-corruption laws and to dismantle the so-called Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, which persecuted voices critical of the government.
Parliament also approved a profound reform of public media, which under Orbán they acted in favor of their party, Fidesz, now in opposition.
On Tuesday (8), the news programs on two public channels went off the air pending the appointment of a new journalism director. Magyar presented the measure as "the end of propaganda broadcasts on public platforms."
These measures "clearly signal the end of Orbán's model of intimidation and his propaganda-based policy," Zsuzsanna Végh, a political analyst at the German Marshall Fund in the United States, told AFP.
- "Operation Purifying Fire" -
However, some of the methods adopted by Magyar provoke debate. "Operation Purifying Fire", which includes a constitutional reform aimed at preventing a concentration of power similar to that of the Orbán era from occurring again.
Before this constitutional reform, which must be submitted to public consultation, Parliament needs to vote on a 12-point amendment that would remove Orbán's ally Tamas Sulyok from the Presidency.
Orbán's party denounced the measure as an attempt to establish an "autocratic command", an accusation often directed at himself. former nationalist prime minister.
Even Amnesty International classified the proposal to remove Sulyok as "unacceptable".
Political scientist Gábor Török assessed that frequent changes to the Constitution create a dangerous precedent. In response, Magyar stated that "it would not be appropriate to go against the democratic will of the people."
- A new era? -
Despite radical constitutional reforms, Magyar's policies do not differ so much from Orbán's in some areas.
The new leader has reestablished ties with the European Union, but maintains his predecessor's firm opposition to the bloc's common migration policy.
His positions on the rights of the LGBT community are also nuanced.
The Budapest LGBT Pride Parade, banned during the Orbán government, once again brought together crowds on the streets of the capital this year. year.
However, Tisza did not repeal any of the anti-LGBT laws, including a rule that the European Union's highest court considered, in April, to violate "the very identity" of the bloc.
Magyar managed, in any case, to weaken the hegemony of the Fidesz-aligned media empire.
Several private vehicles controlled by businesspeople close to the party stopped circulating, were restructured or laid off employees in recent weeks. A decisive factor was the end of revenue from state advertising that sustained them during the Orbán government.
"The oligarchs are no longer willing to invest their 'booty' - the money obtained from public tenders - because Orbán has weakened to the point that no one expects his return to power," Gábor Polyák, from the media observatory, told AFP Mérték.
ros/sbk/phz/mas/avl/lm-jc

Source: G1