Soros is meddling with Hungarian media policy

Billionaire financier George Soros is interfering with Hungarian media policy, it has been claimed.

According to Magyar Idők, ruling party Fidesz hit out in a statement in response to allegations made by international journalists’ organization Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) regarding the takeover of HirTV.

The Fidesz statement said RSF is sponsored by Soros and is part of his network of migration supporters. A statement released on Friday by RSF said that it “condemns Hungarian TV news channel HirTV’s acquisition by a friend of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the latest step in a takeover of the country’s media by Orbán and his ruling national-conservative Fidesz party”.

Magyar Idők said that RSF, which never raises its voice when conservative journalists in Hungary are sacked, reacted immediately when Hungarian news channel HírTV changed ownership last week and was being repositioned along its original conservative values.

The conservative takeover of HírTV and the sacking of its recent iconic faces has been the biggest upheavel in Hungarian media history. The Magyar Idők article also said that sponsors of RSF – a Paris-based NGO with consultative rights in the United Nations – includes the Soros’ Open Society Institute, which is a stark opponent of the Hungarian government.

Conservative politicians said the previous owner of HírTV, Lajos Simicska, a former ally of prime minister Viktor Orbán who declared “all-out media war” on the government in 2015, robbed conservative viewers of their television and put leftist liberal journalists on screen. Yet at that time RSF did not protest.