A BATTLE BETWEEN THE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT and left-leaning opposition over control of the boards that regulate state-owned radio and television dominated Hungarian press freedom debate in 2000. After the four-year terms of the National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) and three other broadcast boards expired in February, opposition parties failed to exercise their legal right…
Hungary joined NATO in April and remained a front runner for European Union membership. However, these diplomatic victories could not mask the government’s growing contempt for the press and especially for journalists investigating stories that might embarrass the ruling Fidesz Party. In 1999, Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the Fidesz Party sought more control over…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ ) is greatly alarmed by a December 27 grenade attack near the offices of the independent weekly Elet es Irodalom in Budapest. The newspaper’s editors suspect the attack came in reprisal for its recent court victory in a libel suit that Your Excellency and Fidesz, the main governing party, filed against it in October.