Thread by @docrussjackson

How did Putin & Boris Johnson's political ally & friend Viktor Orbán seize control of the media & build an illiberal state in a decade? With foreign billionaire-funded GB News broadcasting, & Murdoch's talkTV launching soon, is the UK heading the same way?
ft.com/content/a6beb5…

In May 2021, Boris Johnson met only the 2nd EU leader since Brexit: grotesque far-right racist authoritarian, Viktor Orbán, who doesn't want "our" colour mixed with others.

The Biden administration describes Hungary as 'a totalitarian regime'.

No 10 calls Orbán 'our friend'.

It seems corrupt far-right anti-democratic authoritarian liars, with strong links to deregulatory free-market think tank networks which use dark money to roll back worker, consumer, democratic & environmental protections, is what unites Britain & Hungary.

opendemocracy.net/en/5050/dark-m…

Orban has used a decade in power to tighten his grip on Hungary’s media & squeeze out alternative viewpoints. It has become one of his most significant advantages as he prepares for a general election on April 3, when he and his Fidesz party are seeking a fourth consecutive term.

Orbán combined gerrymandering with the first-past-the-post system to turn Hungary into a dictatorship in plain sight.

If you think that could never happen in Britain, ask: Why the voter suppression? Why the criminalization of protest? Why the willingness to lie & break the law?

Ahead of the election, Hungary’s opposition parties have attempted to increase their chances of ousting Orban by rallying behind a joint candidate for the premiership, Peter Marki-Zay, but Orban remains favourite, despite the baggage of his decade-long alignment with Russia.

Pro-government media has been careful not to lay blame for the war on Putin. Less than two-thirds of Hungarians, and less than half of Fidesz voters, think of the war as Russian aggression. A quarter of Orban supporters think of the war as a defensive operation by Russia.

Hungary’s pro-Orban media includes the richly funded but closely controlled public broadcasters; companies with owners friendly to the regime; & almost 500 titles under the Central European Press & Media Foundation (KESMA), a not-for-profit group created in 2018.

The KESMA foundation controls many of the country's media outlets, including cable news channels, radio stations, internet news portals, newspapers and magazines. The joint estimated value of the foundations assets is over £73million.

KESMA has been criticized by the European Federation of Journalists & the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom for its close ties to Orbán. Its news outlets were acquired or founded by allies of Orbán in the past few years & then donated to the foundation in 2018.

Hungary's "public service" media has been neutered & turned into a propaganda machine, while commercial TV has struggled to generate political content, not least as Orban ensured regulatory control through new laws, & named loyalists to market watchdogs.

Orban has built his media control gradually since 2010, according to a study by Mertek, a Budapest think-tank devoted to media studies: “The decade in which (Orban) built the illiberal state and shed European Union values has fundamentally altered Hungary’s public discourse.”

The Hungarian government has also used its clout in the advertising market to favour friendly titles, according to a wide-ranging 2020 study of Hungary’s advertising market in the journal East European Politics.

“Under Fidesz... state advertising was immediately diverted to companies acquired by investors with close ties to the government... Independent competitors are clearly being avoided by state advertisers, thereby rendering fair competition impossible.”

Several once independent private titles eventually buckled under the pressure. A pro-government businessman bought Index, an influential news website, in 2020, & Klubradio, the last independent talk radio station, did not have its frequencies renewed when they expired in 2021.

In the UK, divisive reactionary GB "News" is funded by a foreign billionaire & free-market fundamentalist hedge-funders based in Dubai.

Joining talkRadio soon is talkTV, funded by divisive reactionary foreign billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

Think it couldn't happen here?

We should have a better idea any day about the extent to which Boris Johnson is intent on pushing Britain's "news" media even further to the right, when divisive reactionary culture war Minister Nadine Dorries names the new @Ofcom regulator.

Ofcom has lacked a permanent chair for more than a year after Boris Johnson’s preferred choice, Paul Dacre, was found “unappointable” by an interview panel.

Johnson had personally asked Dacre if he wanted the job, Dacre wrote in the Spectator magazine.

spectator.co.uk/article/if-i-w…

Speaking of The Spectator & Viktor Orban...

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1387338254282895361?s=20&t=eqQ0ow_Clj4KIVf9Tc_TwQ