Abstract
The journalists had probing, critical questions. Why were people with a fever sent home from hospitals without testing? Why didn’t the authorities test people with obvious symptoms? Was it a coincidence that the first cases were blamed on young Iranian students when rumours were circulating of elderly people with pneumonia in hospitals already in February?
But the unexpected came when a reporter from Hungary’s biggest TV channel, RTL Klub, took her turn: a press officer grabbed the microphone out of her hands while she was asking her question.
“We both have other things to do,” the police representative on the podium told her.
A few days later, at a similar press conference, one of Orbán’s press officers went even further when asked about testing protocols.
CREDIT: Dino/Cartoon Movement
“You shouldn’t be smarter than epidemiological experts,” he warned journalists.
Several months have since passed, and the lobby of the ministry is empty. Worse still, attacks on journalists have escalated to such an extent that many fear we are now beyond the point where media critical of the government can easily exist.
Press conferences called by the operational corps about the virus are held in a TV studio. Questions from journalists must be submitted by email two hours beforehand, and they have no comeback on the answers. Press officers examine them and make a careful selection: critical questions are often ignored, and those that are not ignored are usually given blunt and uninformative answers.
Journalists at the few independent papers that remain in the country are used to being ignored by authorities under Orbán’s rule. Emails sent to ministries are left unanswered, and phone numbers for press offices
are never direct lines – some have even deleted the numbers from their websites. Sources are harder to get; even when they speak, they do so anonymously for fear of retaliation.
“I respect your work and I know I promised to help, but someone from the ministry told me it would be unwise to speak to you,” was the answer I got from a healthcare professional on the phone recently.
Even under such circumstances, the remnants of the independent media manage to publish stories of corruption, political intrigue and affairs of the state. But in the wake of the global pandemic, the strict rules have drastically changed for the worse. Some now fear there may be long-term effects from which independent media will never recover.
On 30 March, parliament – with its two-thirds government majority – passed the Coronavirus Act. This gives Orbán the right to rule by decree for an indefinite time (though he has since announced that he will return the special powers by end of May). It also introduced jail terms of up to five years for intentionally spreading misinformation that hinders the government response to the pandemic. What “intentionally spreading misinformation” means is not specified.
Newsrooms all over the country quickly responded by compiling legal guidelines for their staff, and journalists started checking their information not twice but three or four times before handing their stories to editors. Around 107 cases were filed for spreading misinformation during the state of emergency, by the time this magazine went to press. The news programme of M1 state television has also launched a series called “Debunking fake news” in which it only portrays articles from independent media, with no opportunity to defend themselves.
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, an NGO, published a report after speaking to many independent newsrooms about their experiences since the pandemic started. Many complained of centralised communication, not having access to information and the unwillingness of their sources to speak out.
One of the journalists interviewed said: “I spoke to a doctor who warned me not to write down what I heard because they would be fired, and I would be sent to jail.”
Another journalist compared the control over the media to a giant snake: “Every time we breathe, it tightens its grip even more.”
Szabolcs Panyi, an investigative journalist at Direkt36, speaks of similar experiences.
“It has been a long tradition of the Hungarian government to ignore or refuse media inquiries [and] interview or FOI requests by independent journalists. However, the Covid-19 situation triggered further centralisation and restrictions in government communications. For example, a topic my outlet tries to cover is the price, quality and certifications of the protective equipment and Covid-19 tests the Hungarian government procures from China. This should be public information as they are bought [with] taxpayers’ money, but we know very little about these purchases,” he told Index.
The biggest fear of independent journalists is that the snake will never let them go. Many agree that the growing control and centralisation of state communication will have long-lasting consequences when the pandemic is over.
Being familiar with the media policy of the Orbán government, Ágnes Urbán, an analyst at Mérték Media Monitor, also finds it hard to believe that things will return to the way they were before the emergency.
“It is obvious that the government exploits the pandemic to centralise its power even more, confine publicity and eliminate the still-existing elements of checks and balances – not to mention that publishers need to face unprecedented economic challenges,” she said.
Zsombor György is no stranger to the government’s attacks. After the original Magyar Nemzet was shut down, where he used to work, he and his colleagues founded Magyar Hang, an independent weekly. Their paper has been under attack ever since and was among the first to be labelled “fake news” in the new state television series. Though some may think otherwise, he believes the only option is to fight back against accusations, so Magyar Hang filed an official complaint to the Media Council, Hungary’s most powerful media regulatory body.
“If society is made to believe we tell lies, there is a huge problem. When state TV says you are spreading fake news, it is our duty to fight back,” he told Index.
Editor-in-chief György thinks Hungarian society lacks media literacy, meaning people fail to understand that publicity is power and can have consequences.
“The old way of reporting from the countryside was to speak to the school principal, the mayor, the innkeeper and the parish priest. Now they either do not have the authority to speak or are afraid to do so. Important stories never reach the public as a result,” he added.
But it is not only ordinary people who are reluctant to speak out. György thinks there is growing fear among critical journalists as well, which may lead to self-censorship. In the meantime, government attacks against the free press are so frequent people are ceasing to even notice them.
“Ten years ago, it would have been unimaginable for state propaganda to call journalists liars. Now the narrative against independent media runs through propaganda outlets one by one. On pro-government news channel Hír TV there are programmes where commentators discuss police actions against them. By the time this happens in real life, ordinary people will not be surprised,” he said.
Even if society may be prepared for such things to happen, the idea remains terrifying for independent journalists.
“They are already afraid, so Orbán will never need black cars in the middle of the night to take reporters away,” György said. “He knows very well what he is doing.”