číslo 1/2013 - Paneurópska vysoká škola

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Global Media Journal
of media freedom (2010 – present). Focusing on the latter three periods, it describes the different phases
of media politics along the following dichotomies: conflict vs. compromise; one-party vs. multi-party media
control; political propaganda vs. political marketing; and ideological hegemony vs. ideological pluralism. It
argues that the setback for media freedom which started in 2010 makes Hungary an outlier for regional
tendencies. Finally, it attempts to identify the reasons for (1) the paradigm shifts marking the beginnings of
the periods above and for (2) the peculiarities of Hungary’s media politics as opposed to other Central and
Eastern European countries.
A brief overview of media politics in post-transformation Hungary
The political transformation of 1989 – 1990, whose roots go back to at least 1986, 7 liberated the
Hungarian journalistic community: the old political elites were no longer in the position to control the media,
while the new ones did not have the power as yet to do so. Although the Freedom House press freedom
historical data do not cover this early period, Hungarian media analysts look back on it as a golden age of
media freedom. During these years, the media acted independently: they criticised and de-legitimised the
declining Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, presented the emerging dissident politicians and parties to voters,
and mobilised people to join street demonstrations. They were the watchdogs of political actors in the
classic sense of the term. In this early period, the journalistic community seemed free of all constraints and
appeared united; it shared the joint goals of changing the system and establishing democracy, and it had the
support of the emerging non-communist parties. With the 1986 Press Act heavily amended in early 1990 and
no Broadcasting Act passed as yet, the legal and institutional framework regulating the media was still in the
making (Horvát, 1997; Sükösd, 2000; Bayer, 2005; Monori, 2007). This turbulent but brief period, however,
is not the focus of this paper, and will not be further discussed.
Freedom House’s data set goes back to 1993. The organisation assesses the status of press freedom on
the basis of a checklist of 23 questions, of which 20 cover political pressures. 8 Unsurprisingly, then, Freedom
7 The year 1986 was marked by at least four events which had a major impact on both the media and politics: (1) the
editor-in-chief of Hungarian Television’s evening news bulletin was removed after 30 years in post, and a relatively young
journalist, Endre Aczél, appointed, which radically changed the style and content of the news; (2) Hungary’s first commercial
station Danubius Radio was launched as state-owned Hungarian Radio’s fourth channel, and started to provide
entertainment and pop music, marking the beginning of the end of the agitation and propaganda model; (3) city councils
established local television channels, thus ending Hungarian Television’s monopoly; and (4) on the thirtieth anniversary of
the 1956 revolution, Miklós Győrffy, anchor of the late night radio show Bagoly (Owl) on Hungarian Radio raised the issue
of where the bodies of the revolution’s martyrs who had been executed in 1957 and 1958 were buried. This latter show
triggered a chain of events which finally lead to the solemn reburial and rehabilitation of 1956 Prime Minister Imre Nagy and
other prominent figures of the revolution on 16 June 1989, and the delegitimisation of the regime headed by János Kádár,
who had ordered their execution (for details see Bajomi-Lázár, 2005).
8 The questions assess the constitutional guarantees of free speech, the independence of the judiciary, the independence
of media authorities, the government s control over information, access to information, self-censorship, state
ownership, the transparency and concentration of private media, the state s role in allocating advertising revenues
and subsidies, etc. For a detailed description of Freedom House’s research methodology, see
(last accessed October 5, 2012)
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