Out of Orbán’s shadow, Hungary tries to reset how the public gets its news

Budapest, Hungary | Oct. 13, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET | 4 min read For 16 years, Hungarian journalists learned to survive in one of two worlds. One was a patronage-heavy, pro-government machine; the other an adversarial independent sector.So when Antónia Mészáros was tapped to host the official relaunch of Hungary’s main public television channel, she did not hesitate to step up and help mark a clean break with the past.When she was called into the offices of M1, the broadcaster was operating with only a skeleton staff after many of its employees had left or been fired following the ouster of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from office in April. Under Mr. Orbán, public media had become a mouthpiece of the government, with heavy-handed bias in its reporting and favoritism in its offices. Ms. Mészáros had worked in Hungarian public broadcasting as a journalist before being part of mass layoffs in 2011, and hosted a talk show in Hungary for several years afterward, until going to work for UNICEF. The opportunity to host a special day of programming now, she says, gave her the honor of symbolizing a free, credible, and professional public media ethos.“I’m convinced that there’s a genuine effort being made,” Ms. Mészáros says. “And that the people responsible for rebirthing public media are working extremely hard to establish a new beginning.” Balint Szentgallay/NurPhoto/ReutersA live broadcast of M1, the Hungarian public broadcaster's news channel, is shown on July 7, 2026, shortly after newly appointed executives assumed control of the broadcaster. The message reads, ''The public media must not lie. We apologize for having done so for many years. The public media is now being transformed so that, in the future, it will be independent and trustworthy. News broadcasting is temporarily suspended. Please stay with us!'' But trust, she notes, is something that will have to be earned over months and years. And that can only be achieved through balanced news, space for critical views, and investigative journalism free from political interference.With a new government now in power, Hungary has the opportunity to transform public media. After Péter Magyar replaced Mr. Orbán as prime minister in April, the overhaul of public media began in earnest. And news outlets across the board, both public and private, are adapting to the post-Orbán environment where the government isn’t always right and the Fourth Estate has a critical public role to play. “I think we have this fantastic opportunity to start everything from scratch,” says Ferenc Hammer, an associate professor in the media and communications department at ELTE University in Budapest. “Everything is gone, which is, I think, a privilege.”“Not black or white”The staff at public radio MTVA is also experiencing a sweeping restructuring and auditing period. A public media employee who returned to the station after more than a decade away says the workforce is divided between those eager to open a new chapter and those concerned over losing their jobs.“There is a group of people who are very happy that things are changing and Fidesz [Mr. Orbán’s party] rule is over,” says the employee, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to give interviews. Others were “really scared and are afraid for their future,” the employee says.“One has to understand that the situation is not black or white,” they add, saying some reporters and editors who stayed were “very good professionals” and had not produced propaganda.“The new programs are objective and no one wants to produce political propaganda again,” the employee says.What now for critical media?Corruption scandals of the previous Fidesz regime were the bread and butter of Átlátszó. The investigative journalism outlet operates from a low-key office tucked into a historic Budapest building.Independent news media, says Tamás Bodoky, Átlátszó’s editor, came under increasingly aggressive pressure under Fidesz, including campaigns portraying critical outlets as foreign agents. Had Fidesz stayed in power, Átlátszó might not have survived. Virginia Mayo/APHungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar addresses the media at EU headquarters in Brussels, May 29, 2026. Mr. Bodoky says that the constellation of state-subsidized media built up under Fidesz is now crumbling. Such outlets depended heavily on taxpayer funding, which fed into state advertising and government communication campaigns, and have now lost the support that kept them afloat. Ironically, the change of government has created a new challenge for independent news outlets too. Audiences don’t always get the nuance that journalists rely on to scrutinize any political system. The reporters at Átlátszó, for example, now risk being labeled pro-Fidesz if providing critical coverage of the new government.“The audience feels that now we have won the fight. ‘Mr. Orbán is gone, we no longer need to support the critical press,’” Mr. Bodoky says. “So that puts us in an interesting position because the audience is no longer financing us as they were earlier.”Change, in his view, will be measured in the government’s openness to scrutiny. “I would be very interested if the public service newscast would be critical of the government and ask real questions. Also, if the state institutions started to give real answers to journalists when we ask something.”A few tendencies worry Mr. Bodoky, including Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s reliance on Facebook to communicate directly with the public and his connections with people in positions of influence, like his brother, who owns Kontroll, a private political media outlet. Dominique SoguelJudit Balogh, sitting at a café in Budapest, used to be a public media employee, but now she creates programs on YouTube. Signs of changeJudit Balogh worked in public media before Fidesz came to power. The red lines crept up gradually. Choices that once belonged to journalists became instructions from above. The word “refugee” became forbidden.Eventually, she voted with her feet – asking to be included on the list during layoffs – and now prefers the absolute freedom of YouTube programming. But she is optimistic about the future. “What I see in the media right now gives me hope” she says, “because critical voices are appearing on public television again.” Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. Zoltán Varga, owner of Central Media, one of Hungary’s largest private media companies, says some of his journalists have left independent media to join the public broadcaster out of a sense of duty.“Fidesz completely transformed the public service here in Hungary,” he says. “They had to be loyal to the party and not to the country. ... 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