Overview
- State television M1 and public radio Kossuth suspended regular news output and displayed a text apology on Tuesday, July 7, saying public-service media "must not lie" and apologizing for years of misleading reporting.
- Prime Minister Peter Magyar publicly declared the end of propaganda on public platforms and ordered a comprehensive review of how state media operate and are financed.
- The state media group MTVA said M1 will return to air in the evening without news programming, while Kossuth temporarily replaced speech and news shows with music from the Bartók channel.
- Changes at private broadcaster TV2, which has replaced its news chief and leading anchors since Magyar’s April election victory, point to a broader realignment of Hungary’s media landscape.
- M1’s shift follows years in which critics and observers described the channel as government-friendly under Viktor Orbán, and Magyar’s Tisza Party holds a parliamentary supermajority that gives it the power to pursue institutional and funding reforms that could reshape public media and affect journalists and public trust.