The communication of Fidesz, Hungary's governing party between 2010 and 2026, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has been widely described as populist propaganda.
Since Fidesz–KDNP's 2010 landslide victory, government-critical media was removed one-by-one through legal and financial means, while oligarchs close to the government acquired outlets. Hungary's public service broadcaster and other television channels and radio stations were united under the Media Services Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). Meanwhile, 80% of all Hungarian media is operated by the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), filled with Fidesz loyalists. The media policy of the Orbán regime was based on limiting access to financial resources, undermining the independence of regulatory bodies, and hindering access to information of public interest. As a result, Hungary experiences two parallel media systems: one directly or indirectly controlled by the government, and the other being independent. Paid for by taxpayer money, Fidesz uses bought-up outlets, its social media empire, and outdoor advertising to spread manipulative and hostile disinformation.
During the 2015 European migrant crisis, a smear campaign was launched by Fidesz against George Soros, and his alleged of uncontrolled migration. Billboards nationwide claimed that he wanted to settle millions of Africans and Middle Easterners in Hungary. Meanwhile, the Orbán regime portrayed itself as the ones who are defending Hungary's national interests. Migrants were depicted as terrorists who spread lethal diseases, threaten local culture, and rape women. This campaign led to the 2016 migrant quota referendum, the 2017 about the alleged "Soros Plan", and the 2018 . The "weak West", the EU, the UN, and "the globalists" were accused of orchestrating a population exchange, and were later blamed for exposing children to woke ideology, the promotion of homosexuality, and dangerous sex-change surgeries. In 2021, the anti-LGBTQ law was enacted, a referendum was held next year about "sexual propaganda" in schools, and Pride parades were banned in 2025.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fidesz's communication falsely accused the opposition, Brussels, European countries, and NATO members of dragging Hungary into war by seeking to send weapons and soldiers to Ukraine. Painting Ukraine as the source of danger instead of Russia, Fidesz claimed that the opposition conspired with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to interfere with Hungarian elections. The regime's rhetoric divided Hungarians into peace-lovers and warmongers, and oppositional figures and organizations were labelled "pro-war". The 2024 and 2026 elections were portrayed as a choice between World War III and peace. Numerous Russian-style hostile smear campaigns were launched against Péter Magyar, then leader of the largest party and Orbán's main rival, who was later elected prime minister. His Tisza Party was accused of increasing taxes, and accounts and organizations close to Fidesz released AI-generated videos discrediting him.
Centralization of the press
History In the 1990s, Fidesz often received over 40% support. However, following the 1994 elections, it had the fewest seats in Parliament. In their election postmortem, Fidesz blamed the "concentrated campaign" in the press against them for their poor performance. Fidesz's elite realized they needed to improve their media presence.
In 1993, Fidesz treasurer Lajos Simicska privatized the state advertising company, Mahir, whose posters served Viktor Orbán's campaigns until 2014, and who took a hold of the newspaper Magyar Nemzet. Following the 1998 election victory, Fidesz replaced left-wing broadcasters and shut down the newspaper Kurir, which had given publicity to the party's awkward issues. The Prime Minister's Office and the state-owned gambling service advertised for hundreds of millions of forints in Magyar Nemzet in the months before the 2002 elections. After Fidesz lost the elections in 2002, Simicska founded Hír TV, the first cable news channel of Hungary. The party used Magyar Nemzet to launch political attacks, resulting in 95 libel actions launched against the newspaper, and millions of forints in fines. In 2005, tycoon founded Echo TV and purchased Magyar Hírlap, turning both pro-Fidesz. These acquisitions played a crucial role in 2010, when Orbán returned to government, because in 2006, Hungarian Radiowith a Fidesz-leaning presidentleaked Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's Őszöd speech, in which he said that his party had been lying "day and night", leading to violent protests nationwide. Simicska's Hír TV broadcast the protests live, calling it a "revolution", which led up to Fidesz's 2010 landslide victory. It was further helped by Simicska's media empire providing Orbán with platforms to deliver his messages, while Orbán avoided participating in prime ministerial debates.
After receiving a two-thirds majority in the 2010 elections, Fidesz amended the constitution by removing the media pluralism tenet, which required the National Assembly to codify precluding information monopolies. Through the , the National Radio and Television Council (ORTT)which managed frequency allocation and the redistribution of license fee revenueswas replaced by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) with jurisdiction over all media, governed by the Media Council. The NMHH imposed heavy fines for coverage it considered offensive, unbalanced, or breaking vaguely written regulations, and it allocated frequencies according to its own criteria. The Media Council only has Fidesz appointees and participates in investigations of mergers that involve companies "bearing editorial responsibility". The Media Council closed down , leaving Simicska's as the sole nationwide commercial radio station. In 2010, the council declared the influential left-liberal Klubrádió's frequency tenders unsuccessful for arbitrary reasons (such as playing slightly less Hungarian music one day than required by law) and state-controlled entities stopped advertising on it, as it was the only independent radio station and it employed several journalists fired from the state radio under Orbán. This caused Klubrádió to lose 90% of its income.
In 2011, Magyar Televízió, Magyar Rádió, Duna Televízió, and the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) were united the Media Services Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA), its director being appointed by the Chair of the Media Council. Advertising and program production were outsourced to companies close to Fidesz, such as Hung-Ister, formerly owned by Simicska. MTI released pro-government news for free to all outlets, which led to the closing of , its only private rival. Magyar Televízió has hired multiple activists and journalists loyal to Fidesz, who earn four times as much as the average Hungarian. With its two-thirds majority, Fidesz used legal amendments to replace private market advertisement with its own state advertisement support scheme, make the media environment less transparent, and create obstacles for source protection.
In 2014, after Fidesz's third election victory, Orbán diversified state corruption by dropping Simicska, and instead he relied upon a dozen people submissive to him. After learning that Orbán lured journalists into leaving Simicska's organizations for the newly established Fidesz-friendly ones, Simicska left Fidesz on the so-called G-Day after insulting him, starting the . He turned his mediaMagyar Nemzet, Hír TV, Lánchíd Rádióoppositional, scrutinizing corruption, while Fidesz's posters depicted him alongside George Soros as puppet masters of the opposition. Orbán picked Lőrinc Mészáros, his former classmate, as replacement for Simicska, winning state and European Union procurements, and becoming the richest Hungarian and first Forbes billionaire. By 2018, Mészáros's empire consisted of hundreds of media outlets. After M1 was turned into a public news channel in 2015, it has flooded even rural Hungarians with manipulated and false political messages until its 2026 restructuring. Népszabadság, Hungary's de facto newspaper of record and main opposition daily, was shut down overnight in 2016. Fidesz's media falsely claimed that Jobbik politician and leader of the opposition Gábor Vona was a member of a terrorist group and gay.
After Fidesz's 2018 election victory, Simicska indirectly sold his remaining media portfolio to Mészáros. In November, the owners of 476 media outlets close to the governmentmaking up 80% of all Hungarian mediafreely donated their outlets to the newly established Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), whose managers are Fidesz operatives. Orbán issued a decree declaring the acquisition of KESMA "a matter of national strategic importance", exempting it from scrutiny by the or the Media Council. Creating the illusion of diversity, KESMA is not subject to independent scrutiny. Starting 2018, the companies of Gyula Balásy won nearly all of the tenders issued by the Prime Minister's Office, without competition, profiting billions of forints, making Balásy one of the richest in the country. His companies were responsible for many of Fidesz's propaganda campaigns since 2005; these ads that were falsely claimed to be informative became a symbol of Fidesz's System of National Cooperation (NER), routinely scaring Hungarians with some source of danger, while Fidesz is painted as the defenders of the people. Starting around 2018, the government targeted journalists and critics of Orbán with Pegasus, an Israeli spyware. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pro-government media published over 600 stories claiming that the opposition is following an anti-vaccination strategy based on quotes allegedly made by political analysts, despite the fact that two courts have found these stories to be false.
The printed press had been taken over: by 2018, Népszava was the only remaining independent national daily. Magyar Nemzet was shut down by Simicska, then reopened by Mészáros, and it has been operated since 2019 by KESMA. All national and local dailies were transferred to KESMA, and they are strictly coordinated, with their political sections sometimes being word-for-word identical. Radio channels are similarly dominated by Fidesz, with Klubrádió remaining the only independent one. Since 2014, a former spokesperson of Orbán has provided music radios with daily packages of three-minute hourly news. TV2 was bought by Orbán's ally, Andrew G. Vajna. When RTL Klub was hit with a pre-profit advertisement revenue tax, they filled their news with corruption stories, winning top ratings. Another TV station that remained independent is ATV. The state's oligarchs also acquired online mediums, such as Origo and Index. Independent investigative sites such as and are supported by foundations, thus labelled as foreign-paid enemies. Stigmatizing and discrediting independent media, such as by calling them "fake news factories" and "dollar media", has kept information contrary to the government's narrative hidden from its voters. The regime has discriminated against independent journalists by depicting them as foreign agents who are destroying the nation's good fortune, traitors, "Hungary-haters", or "non-Hungarians". Moreover, they have been intimidated by threats of unemployment, delicensing, bureaucratic harassment, and revenue loss.