The publisher of the left-wing, opposition-friendly portal, 444.hu, has received additional significant financial support from Brussels.

According to data published on the European Commission’s website, Magyar Jeti Zrt. has won €318,172 as part of the media project called The Eastern Frontier Initiative (TEFI), after receiving support from the European Commission in the past, writes Magyar Nemzet.

Hungary’s Office for the Protection of Sovereignty recently examined the TEFI media project, which is also running a campaign in Hungary, and found that it is an integral part of the network of NGOs and news sites associated with George Soros and his Open Society Foundations.

According to the report, the consortium led by Magyar Jeti Zrt. in Hungary includes the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza, the Slovak Sme, the Dutch Bellingcat, and the Romanian PressOne, all of which are newspapers linked to Soros. According to the office’s report, the members of this consortium regularly publish various publications together with the think tank Globsec, which is considered an EU strategy-making workshop. These are then distributed in schools and universities.

MN previously reported that Brussels is “combating fake news” by giving 100s of millions of forints to such groups. The Hungarian Digital Media Observatory (HDMO), supported by the European Commission, is supporting its project against “disinformation,” which runs from Oct. 1, 2025, to March 31, 2028, with €1.3 million.

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The money is largely controlled by left-liberal organizations hostile to the Hungarian government, such as Political Capital, the Mérték Médiaelemző Műhely, the Idea Foundation, Lakmusz (Magyar Jeti Zrt.), and the French news agency AFP.

These same names appeared in previous fact-checking programs between Jan. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2025, when they received €1.44 million in EU money, reminds MN.

Here, among the supported media companies, Magyar Jeti Zrt., which is also the publisher of 444 and Lakmusz, also appeared. The latter platform operates as a so-called fact-checking portal, a global progressive tool to restrict press freedom and shape public discourse in the name of “fact-checking.” 

In 2024, Magyar Jeti Zrt. received HUF 173 million from tender grants alone, notes MN, including as part of the Sphera project funded by the European Commission, HUF 23 million more than the previous year.