1 month ago
During his state of nan federation address earlier this year, Hungary’s premier minister, Viktor Orbán, outlined a chilling imagination of nan country’s future. Signalling a caller level of aggression successful his run against nan truth if he is returned to powerfulness successful elections connected 12 April, Orbán vowed to purge nan state of “bought journalists” and “fake civilian nine organisations”.
Media repression isn’t conscionable a Hungarian problem. According to nan V-Dem Institute successful Sweden, a leading populist monitor, it is nan astir commonly utilized limb successful nan authoritarian arsenal. Strikingly, its latest study finds that US democracy is now astatine its worst level since nan 1960s, marked by a crisp diminution successful media freedom.
In February, Donald Trump endorsed Orbán for re-election. Likening Orbán to himself, Trump hailed nan premier curate arsenic “a genuinely beardown and powerful leader” who has delivered “phenomenal results”. But nan US president has done much than praise Orbán – he has taken a page from nan Hungarian’s authoritarian playbook by restricting media freedom.
Trump is pursuing nan Orbán exemplary of media repression astatine home. A report I co-authored for nan Rule of Law Lab astatine NYU School of Law and nan Hungarian watchdog Mérték Media Monitor makes nan parallels clear arsenic it documents Orbán’s systematic attacks connected independent media complete his 16-year tenure.
Both Orbán and Trump are dispute to independent journalists, routinely utilizing dehumanising connection to refer to them. In Hungary, Orbán has described independent media outlets arsenic “fake news factories” and journalists – alongside judges, rival politicians and what he calls “bogus civilian society” organisations – as “stink bugs”, who request to beryllium eradicated. Trump has similarly attacked captious outlets by calling them purveyors of “fake news” and nan “enemy of nan people”. He has misogynistically hurled epithets specified arsenic “piggy”, “ugly” and “stupid” at female reporters.
Both leaders contradict news outlets access, efficaciously blocking independent reporting. Orbán’s authorities routinely excludes independent journalists from authorities events, property conferences, parliament and different nationalist institutions. In nan run-up to adjacent Sunday’s elections, independent reporters person been forcibly removed while covering nationalist run events supportive of nan ruling party.
The Trump management barred nan Associated Press from nan Oval Office and Air Force One because it refused to telephone nan Gulf of Mexico nan “Gulf of America”. After a tribunal ruled that nan administration’s restrictions connected reporters’ entree to nan Pentagon were unlawful, it closed media offices successful nan building successful an evident effort to circumvent nan ruling.
Where removal fails to silence, some men person taken to utilizing lawfare against independent media. Last month, aft a study by nan Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi alleged that nan country’s overseas curate routinely shared details of confidential EU meetings pinch his Russian counterpart – claims nan curate rejected – nan Hungarian authorities revenge a criminal complaint accusing Panyi of espionage.
In 2024 nan Hungarian authorities launched an investigation into nan starring independent media outlet Átlátszó nether nan Sovereignty Protection Act, which targets entities allegedly serving “foreign interests”. The investigation was launched despite nan truth that nan European Commission had opened an infringement process against nan Orbán authorities connected nan grounds that nan act violated European Union law.
Orbán’s friends person revenge galore costly lawsuits, known arsenic Slapps (strategic litigation against nationalist participation), against independent media outlets to drain them of their resources. In 2024 nan premier curate sued respective independent media outlets for defamation aft they cited an Austrian newspaper question and reply successful which nan CEO of nan supermarket chain Spar criticised his government.
Trump has also handed retired Slapps connected a staggering scale, filing multibillion-dollar lawsuits against ABC News, nan Des Moines Register and nan Iowa pollster Ann Selzer, CBS News and its parent, Paramount, nan New York Times, nan Wall Street Journal and nan BBC.
In his 2nd term, instances of arrests aliases detention of journalists, sometimes convulsive and galore astatine nan hands of rule enforcement, person increased. The FBI searched nan home of a Washington Post journalist, seizing physics devices nether nan guise of an investigation into nan leaking of authorities information. And earlier this twelvemonth national agents arrested nan former CNN journalist Don Lemon connected flimsy charges tied to his coverage of a Minnesota protest. Many spot these moves as blatant attempts to soundlessness independent media.
Neither Trump nor Orbán has been contented pinch simply targeting journalists. They person aimed their sights connected regulatory bodies, too. On taking agency successful 2010, Orbán swiftly enacted new media laws to worldly Hungary’s media regulatory authority pinch loyalists. Perhaps 1 of nan astir glaring examples of nan media regulatory body’s subjugation was its determination to portion nan country’s starring independent power station, Klubrádió, of its broadcasting licence, which successful February nan EU tribunal ruled was a usurpation of EU law.
In 2018 nan authority stood by arsenic nan authorities decreed nan merger of much than 470 pro-government media outlets into nan Central European Press and Media Foundation (Kesma), bypassing title regulations. The authority also oversaw nan state-owned nationalist work media’s conversion into nan government’s propaganda tool. Between 2010 and 2025, Hungary’s rank successful Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index plunged from 23rd to 68th retired of 180 countries, making it 1 of nan worst-ranked media environments successful nan EU.
Today, Orbán’s Fidesz statement is estimated to exert nonstop aliases indirect power complete astir 80% of Hungary’s media, according to Reporters Without Borders.
While nan US has not reached this level of media capture, Trump is implementing a akin strategy via Brendan Carr, his handpicked chair for nan historically independent Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Carr has publicly confirmed that nan FCC, formally speaking, “isn’t independent”, approved media mergers that critics opportunity would consolidate ownership successful nan hands of Trump governmental friends while waiving nan FCC’s ain rules connected broadcast ownership caps, and issued regulatory threats that person induced tv outlets into what nan historiographer Timothy Snyder calls “anticipatory obedience”.
Although US media stay much independent successful nan aggregate than their Hungarian counterparts, nan Trump management is moving pinch alarming velocity to consolidate its influence. Unlike Hungary, which faces location oversight arsenic an EU personnel state, nan US lacks immoderate specified tempering force. Left unchecked, Trump’s campaign of media repression could soon outdo its Hungarian model.
Yet moreover successful Hungary, independent outlets person managed to past against nan odds, sustained by civic spot and innovative backing models. As Hungarians caput to nan polls adjacent Sunday, Americans and Europeans who worth a free property must watch closely. If nan enemies of media state are learning from 1 another, its advocates must do nan same.
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Amrit Singh is professor of believe and founding module head of nan Rule of Law Lab astatine NYU School of Law
