At 4 pm on Tuesday, the M1 broadcast was taken off air. A caption is displayed on the screen stating that public service media must not lie, and apologising for having done so for years. This is the image currently visible on M1:

“Public media must not lie. We apologise for having done just that for many years! Public media is now undergoing a transformation to ensure it remains independent and credible in the future. News broadcasts are temporarily suspended. Please stay with us!” – this is what appears on the screen.

At the same time, Hirado.hu has also gone offline; visitors to the site are greeted by the same message, whilst Kossuth Radio is currently broadcasting only music. According to a statement issued by MTI, “At 19:56, M1 will temporarily resume broadcasting in a new format, featuring films and without news coverage. Bartók Radio’s programmes can be heard temporarily on the Kossuth Radio frequency, without news coverage for the time being. In parallel with the establishment of the new news directorate, news programmes will gradually resume according to a set schedule. The transition will not significantly affect programming other than news services on other platforms.” Thus, on M4 Sport, for example, sporting events will continue to be broadcast.

Prime Minister Péter Magyar described the halt to propaganda as historic on Facebook. Péter Magyar and several other politicians from the Tisza Party spoke during the parliamentary election campaign about how, following their victory, they would put a stop to state-funded party propaganda in the public media. The flagship of Fidesz propaganda within MTVA was M1, which the Fidesz leadership of the public media had reorganised into a news channel under the Orbán governments.

András P. Horváth, MTVA’s interim chief executive appointed last week, relieved Zsolt Németh, director of the M1 channel, of his duties on Tuesday, even before the news service was completely suspended; and, according to our information, Zsolt Mezei, deputy director of content provision, has also left.

In addition to them, several presenters were also dismissed; Attila Császár, for example, was escorted out of the building by security guards.

At 1.00 pm on Tuesday, a statement was published by MTI announcing that the new, interim management of the public media had taken up their posts: András P. Horváth as chief executive, Zsófia Mészáros in charge of online operations, Balázs Bodacz heading the news department, and György Kerényi taking over the management of Kossuth Radio. Alongside them, Péter Koltai will take over the CEO’s office, whilst Sára Teszáry will be responsible for leading the PR and marketing department and will also fulfil the role of spokesperson. According to the statement, once the transitional period has ended, the permanent leaders of the public media will be selected through a competitive recruitment process.

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