In recent years there has been an influx of Hungarian investments in media either in the Hungarian minority communities abroad, or in media aligned with Fidesz’s ideological political allies, particularly in Slovenia and North Macedonia.
The articles were produced by IPI in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN); the Hungarian investigative reporting outlet Átlátszó and its Hungarian-language partner in Romania, Átlátszó Erdély; and the Center for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University’s Democracy Institute.
The Hungarian government aims to increase its influence and spread its propaganda in other countries of the region and above all in neighbours with a large Hungarian minority: Romania,
Slovakia, and Serbia. Hungarian media outlets and the diaspora in general in these countries have traditionally been supported by Hungarian governments since the fall of communism,
but the Orbán government significantly increased that support. Hungarian media in these countries are often manipulated through financing: funding depends on supporting the
Hungarian government without any criticism. Media outlets that play by these rules thrive, while support for others is simply cut.
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