Swiss media group Ringier has sold Hungary’s most-read tabloid and other major titles to a company widely seen as close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.
Ringier said it has sold its Hungarian media divisionRingier Hungary KFT, which owns 18 online publications including tabloids blickEgeszsegKalauz.hu and KiskegyedFor Indamedia Network.
The sale comes just months before Hungary’s national elections, where Orban faces a rare challenge to his 15-year rule.
Why is the sale to Indamedia controversial?
Miklos Waszily, who is chairman and CEO of the pro-government private channel TV2, owns 50% of the Indamedia channel TV2.
In 2020, Vassili presented a plan to reorganize the editorial office. indexBy far the most read news portal in Hungary and is managed by Indamedia.
When journalists protested, the editor-in-chief, Szabolcs Dull, was dismissed in late July. A few days later, almost the entire editorial staff resigned in solidarity.
A new editorial team has since taken over. In recent years, index Has published numerous critical reports about opposition figures, often based on anonymous sources or disputed documents.
Vassilyi recently joined one of the digital platforms Orbán created earlier this year to further his political campaign.
Ringier’s exit raises concerns over Hungary’s free media
Opposition leader Peter Magyar, one of those targeted by Index, has condemned the deal between Ringier and Indamedia, and accused Orbán’s Fidesz of wresting control of Hungary’s last major independent outlet.
“Orbán and his allies are so afraid of losing the elections that they are no longer even trying to pretend,” he wrote on Facebook.
Hungary ranks 68th in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index.
“Thanks to political and economic maneuvering and the buying up of media outlets by oligarchs with close ties to the ruling party Fidesz, Fidesz now controls 80% of the country’s media,” RSF said.
Edited by: Shawn Sinico