In March 1990, the first free elections were held in Hungary after a long period of autocratic communist rule. One of the parties in the new parliament was Fidesz, the Alliance of Young Democrats. In their election poster, these young democrats appealed to voters with the slogan “Your choice”.
Since those first elections, there has been a long journey away from freedom of choice. The Fidesz party and its leader, Hungary’s prime minister Victor Orban, have taken an increasingly authoritarian grip on Hungary, one parliamentary term after another, by changing the country’s legislation.
According to Freedom House, Hungary is only partly a free democracy now. The worst ratings were given to Hungary for freedom of expression and compliance with the rule of law.
Separation of powers into three branches is a key principle of the rule of law. This means that legislative power, executive power and judicial power must be in different hands so that the same people do not hold too much power.
Journalism is called the fourth estate based on this separation of powers: the task of journalism in a democracy is to monitor that the separation of powers is realised and to report any abuses to the people.
Therefore, press freedom is an essential part of democracy. No wonder that dictators and authoritarian leaders make journalists’ work more difficult. In totalitarian dictatorships, such as Russia, where the opposition has been completely suppressed, or China, journalists are imprisoned and even murdered for their work.
In a country like Hungary, which has gradually become authoritarian, the silencing of independent journalism has been more subtle.
The press freedom organisation International Press Institute describes the process in Hungary as having four stages:
The ruling party sows division. The party questions the rights of minorities and the independence of journalists.
The national broadcasting company is placed under the control of the ruling party. This way, it can decide what news is published and how.
Operators close to the ruling party buy commercial news media and select new editorial teams for them.
It will be difficult to obtain information from the remaining independent editorial teams. For example, only media with a positive attitude to the government are invited to press conferences.
Hungary is an example of how fast the change can take place: it ranked 10th in the Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom comparison in 2006, but its ranking has plummeted during the Fidesz administration.
Hungary is no exception: over the past six years, the number of countries moving towards authoritarianism has doubled compared to the number of countries undergoing democratisation. Authoritarian leaders are learning from one another, especially in recent years when it comes to using social media to achieve their own goals. Social media platforms have also played a key role in the interaction between Donald Trump and his supporters, for example.
Although the development of democracy is worrying globally, there are also examples that give hope. The Polish parliamentary elections in autumn 2023 brought about a welcome positive change. In democracy, it is also possible to reset the course, but it requires people to make choices for democratic values.