Hungarian State TV Goes Dark as New PM Medgyessy Admits Years of Lies Under Orban

Hungary's new Prime Minister, Peter Medgyessy, escalated his political and social reform efforts on Tuesday evening by darkening the screens of two state television channels. These channels, long accused of serving as propaganda tools for former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, broadcast a continuous message confessing that they had lied to the public throughout Orban's 16-year rule and that such deception was unacceptable. This blackout followed the government's recent replacement of the state television and radio management.

Medgyessy secured a historic victory in the April general elections, ending Orban's long tenure and winning a parliamentary supermajority that enables constitutional reforms. Orban was criticized for undermining democracy by controlling the media and judiciary and suppressing opposition. Among the new government's early actions is a constitutional amendment limiting any individual to a maximum of eight years as prime minister.

Despite media restrictions during his campaign, Medgyessy managed to appear on state radio "Kossuth" and public TV channel M1 only after his victory. In confrontational live interviews, he accused these outlets of biased coverage favoring Orban and pledged to suspend state news broadcasts temporarily to restore media independence and credibility. He described the public TV interview as "the death throes of a factory of lies."

The blackout on M1 included a message stating that public broadcasting must not lie and apologizing for years of misinformation. The channel's news service was suspended until the government completes restructuring to ensure independence and reliability. According to Hungarian news agency MTI, M1's broadcasts will resume later with films but no news until a new format is established.

Orban's critics have long accused him of consolidating media ownership among his allies, including the Central European Press and Media Foundation, which controlled over 400 outlets by the end of his rule. Medgyessy claimed that 70 to 80 percent of Hungarian media was owned by Orban's supporters, who spread hundreds of daily falsehoods about him and his party and barred him from appearing in their programs from September 2024 until the elections.