The six opposition parties held a demonstration in front of the state media headquarters (MTVA) over the weekend against a variety of issues, including the work of the media funded by public money. They not only protested against the allegedly transmitted Russian propaganda, but also consider it unacceptable that members of their parties are almost never invited to the state-funded media, which means that they can reach significantly fewer voters than ruling Fidesz-KDNP. A Momentum MP also claimed that this year they will not even get the five minutes in the media provided by law during the election campaign.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
“The opposition parties will get their five minutes of public media coverage again this year, which the MTVA will secure for them beyond their legal obligation. Starting on March 16, the parties will be able to talk about themselves for a few minutes on M1 before the 8 o’clock broadcast or on Kossuth Rádió on Wednesdays and Thursdays after the 8 o’clock broadcast.” Public media made a statement after opposition Miklós Hajnal (of Momentum), speaking at a demonstration on Sunday, claimed that he had received information that opposition politicians would not even get the five minutes during this year’s campaign that they had been provided before the last election.
Four years have passed since the last elections, and Telex interviewed the opposition parties on how many times they have been given the chance since then to hit public media’s studios for political broadcasts, and whether they have been interviewed by public media during this year’s election campaign.
The responses revealed that left-liberal Democratic Coalition (DK) has not appeared on any public media programs since 2018, including this year’s electoral campaign.
The leader of satirical, government-critical Two Tailed Dog Party (MKKP – not a member of the opposition alliance) also reported that they had similarly been provided “zero minutes” on public media broadcasts since the 2018 elections. Gergely Kovács added that the obligatory five minutes every four years also made no sense, so four years ago they decided to send in a member of the party, dressed in a chicken costume. In the five-minute-long conversation, the politician answered exclusively by clucking like a chicken.
Centrist-liberal Momentum party has appeared on the public television’s screen one time since the 2018 elections for five minutes, which they were given before the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Socialist MSZP has already received more airtime: they had the chance to appear on public media a total of six times in the last four years.
Green-centrist LMP‘s politicians were aired on public television nine times in the past four years and were interviewed on Kossuth Rádió sixteen times, but not even once during this year’s electoral campaign.
Jobbik recalls that “the last time we were inside the state media’s building – we guess – was in December 2018, and we had to climb over the fence for it.”
Few parties have had a more memorable appearance on public media than Párbeszéd: on his 100th day as Budapest’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony was asked why he didn’t come by bike to public media. The reporter focused a large part of the conversation on this single question, and little was asked about the mayor’s programs and his work.
featured image via Tibor Illyés/MTI
