Russian disinformation in Hungarian public broadcast media: complaint to the European Commission

The devastating war in Ukraine is one of the key challenges of this time in Europe, and especially in Hungary that shares a border with the attacked country. Russia has been using state financed propaganda to disseminate disinformation worldwide. Despite the restrictive measures put in place by the European Union targeting Russia Today and Sputnik, Russian war propaganda has been continuously disseminated in Hungary. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and Political Capital filed a joint complaint to the European Commission.

One of the main sources of Russian disinformation without proper countering is Duna Media, the Hungarian public service media. Duna Media’s operation includes several television and radio channels as well as a news agency. The public service media has been criticized for years of being heavily politicized and favoring the narratives of the Government and failing to comply with professional standards. However, when a war started in a neighboring country, the substandard nature of the public service media in Hungary became more obvious. The Hungarian Authorities enable the dissemination of Russian war-propaganda by not sanctioning the public service media in cases when it presents disinformation as truth. Although in some cases the public service media used a sophisticated method, as its programs did not directly share reporting by sanctioned media outlets, it still disseminated the same notions and ideas that serve the Russian narrative without providing context or countering arguments. In other cases the sanctioned Russian sources were directly quoted. This way the sanctions introduced by the Union fail to reach their goals and their impact is diminished by the public service media of a Member State without effective control by the designated authorities.

“In times of war, balanced reporting is crucial, especially if the aggression is taking place in our neighboring country and the aggressor state, Russia, is trying to deflect the blame for the war on Hungary’s allies. If domestic political actors disseminate the Kremlin’s provenly false narratives to a wide layer of Hungarian society, it only helps Moscow, as such rhetoric could make the Hungarian population question the fact that it is only the Kremlin that is responsible for this war.” – said Patrik Szicherle, analyst at Political Capital.

"The European Union has acted with exemplary speed and effectiveness against Russian war disinformation, and cannot allow the Hungarian public service media to circumvent the common European rules." -- said Stefánia Kapronczay, Executive Director of TASZ.

EC complaint

donwload »

List of broadcasts

donwload »

Share

Related articles

Corruption Monitor - Summary from March 2020 to March 2022

In Hungary, the erosion of the constitutional state and the elevation of corruption to the status of a public policy tool are happening simultaneously, in close connection with each other, mostly hidden behind some alleged public interest objective. In the last two years, this alleged public interest objective has been to control the pandemic. K-Monitor and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union have been documenting this process since the start of the pandemics. The summary and final report of this work covers the period from March 2020 to March 2022. In our report, we present the most significant changes in the last two years that have increased opacity and hampered the fight against corruption, budgetary irregularities, the outsourcing of public assets and measures that disproportionately affect opposition municipalities.

Read more »

SAO procedures: no guarantee for independence and neutrality

The State Audit Office (SAO) is again in action: this year the Democratic Coalition (DK), Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), Momentum and Parbeszed were put on the stand. It is dangerous and illegal what the SAO does. Prior to the EP Elections, the SAO again used procedures on opposition parties, during which the general public is not informed about the background of the cases and which do not provide legal remedies against the sanctions.

Read more »

NATIONAL HOLIDAYS DO NOT GIVE THE GOVERNMENT AN EXCUSE TO SHUT OUT OPPOSING OPINIONS!

The government has submitted an amendment proposal that would exclude protests from the most important, symbolic public squares of Budapest during national holidays. Furthermore, it would empower local governments to remove further areas a no-protest zone.

Read more »