Hungarian Government Suspends State TV News, Admits Years of Lies Under Orban

Hungary's new Prime Minister, Peter Medgyar, has taken a dramatic step in reforming the country's political and media landscape by suspending news broadcasts on two state television channels. On Tuesday evening, the channels went dark and aired an unprecedented apology admitting that during Viktor Orban's 16-year tenure, the public was misled by state media. This move followed Medgyar's replacement of the public television and radio management shortly after his government took office.

The message broadcast on channel M1 stated, “Public broadcasting must not lie. We apologize for having done so for many years. Public broadcasting is now undergoing structural changes to become independent and reliable in the future. News services are temporarily suspended. Stay with us!” According to the Hungarian news agency MTI, broadcasts are expected to resume at 19:56 local time with a temporary schedule featuring only films and no news until a new operational structure is established.

Medgyar, who won the April general elections ending Orban's long rule, secured a parliamentary supermajority allowing constitutional reforms and the reversal of previous government policies. One such reform limits the prime minister's term to eight years. During the campaign, Medgyar accused state media, controlled by Orban, of denying him interview opportunities. After his victory, he appeared on state radio and M1, accusing the media of serving as propaganda tools for Orban’s party and promising to suspend news broadcasts to restore media independence.

Medgyar emphasized that his goal is not personal revenge despite claims that he and his family were defamed repeatedly. He described the current media situation as "the death throes of a factory of lies." Orban faced criticism for controlling not only public but also private media, with many outlets transferred to his allies, including the Central European Press and Media Foundation, which owned over 400 media outlets by the end of his tenure. Medgyar claimed that 70 to 80 percent of Hungarian media was controlled by Orban’s allies and that they published hundreds of false accusations against him daily, barring him from interviews since September 2024 until the election.