Hungarian reports: Did Orban hijack Euronews?

First Viktor Orban restructured the Hungarian media – now he is said to be targeting an international broadcaster: Euronews. According to research, a Hungarian government fund was also involved in the purchase of the medium.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been widely criticized for restructuring the Hungarian media landscape in his favor. It is estimated that around 80 percent of the total turnover of the Hungarian press market goes to media outlets loyal to Orban. Critical media outlets have often been cut off from government subsidies and the advertising market, driven to financial ruin and then taken over by businessmen close to Orban.

Now there may be the Hungarian government’s first attack on an international media outlet. Euronews was bought by a Portuguese businessman – but a Hungarian government fund is also said to be involved.

This is shown by investigative research from Hungary, more precisely from the independent Hungarian investigative research platform Direkt36. An anonymous informant had contacted them with documents that were supposed to show that a Hungarian government sovereign wealth fund had bought the French broadcaster Euronews, at least part of it.

A third of the purchase price will come from Hungary

Andras Pethö, co-founder of Direkt36, says they received “confidential documents about the purchase.” “They show that Euronews was sold for 150 million euros. 45 million, or almost a third, came from a Hungarian state fund called the Szechenyi Fund.” The Szechenyi Fund originally belonged to the Hungarian Ministry of Finance and was then transferred to a state university. But it is still state money.

Pethö has discovered other connections between the Euronews buyer and the Hungarian government. “We found out that a Hungarian businessman with close contacts to the Orban government arranged this deal,” he says. The buyer’s father is a Portuguese politician who is friends with Orban. “The two have known each other for decades.”

Euronews employees in Hungary worried

Euronews is based in Lyon, France, and provides programming for several European countries, including Hungary. The head of the Hungarian office, Attila Kert, says that he and his employees were worried about this change in ownership of their employer from the beginning and thought about what happened to many Hungarian media.

From their headquarters they always say that it’s all about business and that the takeover has no political component, says Kert. “But I told them that we are worried in Hungary. Because in France you don’t get bitten by wolves, so you don’t recognize them there. Here in Hungary you are afraid of even a small dog because he could be a wolf.”

So far, however, they have been able to continue working undisturbed and report critically about Hungary, without censorship. There was “no intervention from above” in the journalistic work, “not even an attempt, not even a suggestion for fine-tuning.” As proof, Attila Kert sends a current Euronews online article about Peter Magyar, the new hope of the Hungarian opposition. He is portrayed in detail and objectively in the text.

Orban “goes to the next level”

The media scientist at Corvinus University Budapest, Agnes Urban, is not surprised that the Euronews employees in Hungary feel nothing. She assumes that Orban has bigger plans for Euronews. He already dominates the domestic media market – and has noticed that people are fed up with obvious, cheap propaganda.

“So he goes to the next level and secures influence on international media,” believes Urban. “The Hungarian state has already bought into media outlets in Slovenia and Serbia. And buying into Euronews fits Orban’s European ambitions.”

Government denies involvement in Euronews

He hopes to gain something from the upcoming European elections and wants to play a leading role in Europe. Then Euronews would be interesting for him. “To intervene now would be too obvious, it would endanger the brand, it would be too risky and wouldn’t make sense for him,” says Urban.

Attila Kert from Euronews Hungary talks about other speculations that exist around him. Perhaps the Hungarian sovereign wealth fund has already pulled out and perhaps the research was launched by rival media to damage Euronews. None of this has been proven. A spokesman for the Orban government asserted that the Hungarian state had nothing to do with Euronews.