Hungary's Democracy for Sale, Orban Does it Again
Hungary's largest tabloid, Blikk , was just acquired by Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), a conglomerate with documented ties to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as reported by DW. This move isn't an isolated incident; it's the culmination of a decade-long strategy. Orban's Fidesz party has systematically dismantled independent media, first through state advertising buys, then by
consolidating ownership under loyalists. By 2018, KESMA alone controlled over 400 outlets. (Perhaps some American politicians should take note of 'Project 2025' on this specific strategy.) While Western media frets over 'European democracy,' few connect these dots to the figures who court Orban at CPAC—figures who now decry any inquiry into their own media holdings as 'political persecution.' The
playbook for controlling public discourse, it appears, is tragically global. When a country's top-selling paper becomes a state-adjacent mouthpiece, what's left but to wonder which 'democratic' leader thinks imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?