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Journalists at Hungary’s left-wing opposition newspaper Népszabadság, which has been temporarily closed, have described the decision to suspend publication as a “coup”. More than 2,000 people took to the streets, demonstrating against the closure outside the parliament building in Budapest on October 8.
As reported by the Guardian, the newspaper’s Austrian owners, Mediaworks, cited the need to seek a viable business model. But Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has voiced a desire to establish an “illiberal democracy”, has been repeatedly accused of interfering in the media.
Mediaworks gained total control of Népszabadság last year after buying out the Socialist party’s 27.7% stake. The company said the decision had been driven by plummeting sales.
“Népszabadság has lost 74% of its sold circulation in the past 10 years, corresponding to more than 100,000 copies,” the company said in a press release. The suspension would enable it to “focus on finding the best business model for the paper, in line with the current trends in the industry, and will start consultations in order to best secure future development,” the statement added.
According to the paper’s journalists, however, the move came just days after they disclosed corruption allegations against a minister in Orbán’s Fidesz party and a scandal embroiling the governor of the national bank.
Népszabadság had also criticised the recent referendum aimed at demonstrating public opposition to proposals to disperse refugees around EU member states, which overwhelmingly came out in favour of Orbán’s position but on too low a turnout to be valid.
In an interview with the Agence France-Presse (APF), one unnamed journalist said: “Of course they will try and paint this as a business decision but it’s not the truth. Népszabadság was the largest group of quality journalists in Hungary trying to defend basic freedoms, democracy, freedom of speech, and tolerance.”
The country’s far-right Jobbik party has also criticised the decision to suspend publication of the newspaper. “The total undermining of Népszabadság is the latest example of Viktor’s Orbán’s megalomania. The only aim of Fidesz is to either gain 100% control over Hungarian media or to obstruct it,” its spokesman told the Associated Press (AP).
In a separate report, The Financial Times noted that opposition politicians said the shutdown would concentrate media ownership in pro-government hands and was an attack on media freedom. “Orbán’s illiberal state is getting to look like Erdogan’s Turkey,” said Csaba Molnar, an MEP for the Democratic Coalition. “It seems that dissent and criticism of the government entail retaliation in Hungary.”
Szilárd Németh, a senior member of the governing Fidesz party, on October 8 told local media it was “high time” Népszabadság was closed.
Before the October 8 announcement, government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said: “Hungarian media freedom was “alive and kicking… even if many are critical of the circumstances.”
According to The Hungarian Free Press online, the newspaper’s editors still have control of Népszabadság’s Facebook page, where they posted the following brief message:
“Dear followers, Népszabadság’s editors were informed at the same time as the broader public that the paper is closed effective immediately. Our first thought is that this is a putsch.”
Established in 1956 – during the days of the Hungarian Revolution and as a successor to a daily entitled Szabad Nép, Népszabadság became a critical, independent centre-left daily following the transition to democracy in 1989-90.
In response to the newspaper’s demise, the liberal 444.hu online posted a scathing response: “Népszabadság’s shuttering was not a rational economic decision. It was instead the latest move of a vengeful, fearful, primitive and increasingly authoritarian regime (…) On paper, Mediaworks is owned by Heinrich Pecina. There are all kinds of theories floating around about who controls him, but all of these theories point in one direction–Pecina receives orders by he, who pays the most. In today’s Hungary, there can be no question about who can pay the most. It is the tight, political-economic circle, commanded by Viktor Orbán, which does not yet have total political economic and intellectual power over an ever smaller piece of Hungary.”
The post Hungary’s left-wing opposition newspaper closed appeared first on New Europe.