Hungary’s public news broadcasts halted in bid to scrap Orban-era propaganda

Hungary’s main public television channel has halted news broadcasts, while a state-run radio station has been suspended altogether, in a bid to make its media “independent and trustworthy”.

The country’s former prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who was ousted in April after 16 years in power, had tightly controlled state media.

Reforms to media were a key campaign promise of Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who described the announcement as “the end of propaganda broadcasts”.

Both TV channel M1 and Kossuth radio station temporarily halted transmission on Tuesday afternoon, with the former displaying a message that read: “Public media should not lie. We are sorry for doing it for so long”.

The message, which was shown in white writing on a black screen, continued: “Public media now will be reformed so it will be independent and trustworthy. Our news programme is currently suspended. Stay tuned!”

Kossuth’s frequencies were instead broadcasting classical music station Bartok Radio, according to AFP news agency.

As Hungary’s main public radio station, Kossuth usually focuses on news, current affairs, sports, and culture.

Websites for both M1 and Kossuth were also down on Tuesday afternoon, AFP added.

A statement from MTVA, which runs M1, said the channel would temporarily restart in a new format without news programmes, with bulletins gradually introduced alongside a new editorial team.

Following the announcement, Magyar described it as a “historic day” which “marks the end of propaganda broadcasts on public media platforms”.

“They lied at night, they lied during the day, they lied on every wavelength. That is now over,” he added.