Press freedom in Europe is facing a widespread and growing threat by “soft” censorship that includes governments’ use of financial power to pressure news media, punish critical reporting and rewa
Capturing Them Softly: Soft Censorship and State Capture in Hungarian Media
State capture of Hungarian media is unfolding principally through the “soft censorship” of financial incentives and influence that affect media outlets’ editorial content and economic viability.
The report on the existence and extent of soft censorship in Hungary is part of the Soft Censorship Global Review, an annual report produced by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in cooperation with the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), with the support from the Open Society Foundations. It was prepared by the Mérték Media Monitor based on the methodology developed by WAN-IFRA. The findings are based on extensive desk research performed from May through July 2013 and in-depth interviews conducted in July 2013.
This report focuses primarily on financial aspects of official soft censorship: pressures to influence news coverage and shape the broad media landscape or the output of specific media outlets or individual journalists through biased, and/or nontransparent allocation or withholding of state/government media subsidies, advertising, and similar financial instruments.