Why the narrative surrounding Channel 4 being privatised is probably bollocks
Lessons from Viktor Orbán and the need for Britain, in 2022, to stop, look and listen
Several days ago, we woke up to the news that Viktor Orbán had been elected as Prime Minister of Hungary for a fourth successive term - to the absolute delight of the UK’s own Nigel Farage, which should give you an indicator of which side of the political fence Orbán sits on [for those unfamiliar].
Orbán’s election came at an unprecedented time against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, and what’s remarkable is that Vladimir Putin considers Viktor Orbán his closest ally in the EU, which provides a headache for the single bloc.
Remarkably, in his victory speech - against the tide of public favour for the Ukrainian president - Orbán declared Volodymr Zelensky an “opponent.”
By Orbán’s own admission, Hungary lives in what he describes as an “illiberal Christian democracy” that is unusually funded by the EU - and by this what Orbán means is that Hungary has seen sweeping constitutional and legislative reforms that have left the country in a state of paralysis owing much to a rigged political system, and gerrymandering involving bogus opposition parties emplaced by Orbán himself to divide constituencies.
[By “unusually funded”, I mean corrupt use of EU funds]
Indeed, it was the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - essentially a United Nations ‘democracy watchdog’) that was brought in to monitor the most recent election amid allegations of potential voter fraud and irregularities; their final assessment has yet to be published, however they declared on Monday that fair democratic process was marred by:
“Ubiquitous government advertising paid by the state gave Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party an undue advantage in the run-up to Sunday's vote.”
It was in 2021, of course, that the French press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders declared that Orbán had cracked down "massively" on press freedom in Hungary using "varied predatory techniques".
The organisation said:
"[Orbán] has steadily and effectively undermined media pluralism and independence since being returned to power in 2010…After public broadcasting was turned into a propaganda organ, private media were subjugated or reduced to silence. The methods may be subtle or brazen, but they are always efficient."
Reporters Without Borders subsequently listed Hungary on its list of “predators" - a list of 37 heads of state or government cited for curbing media freedoms.