More than a revolution, Hungary’s new media landscape can be seen as an evolution. The media revolution began with the rise of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in 2010. Orbán consolidated control over the news media, as well as businesses, the judiciary, regulatory agencies, and prosecutors’ offices.
After Orbán’s Fidesz party lost the national elections on April 12, 2026, and the Tisza Party gained a parliamentary majority, the new prime minister — former Fidesz member and Tisza leader Péter Magyar — declared that Hungary would undergo a complete regime change.
Gone are the billboards across Hungary, funded by Orbán supporters, denouncing the European Union and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Hungary’s flagship newspaper, Magyar Nemzet, was ordered by a court to stop referring to Péter Magyar as “a bug who must be exterminated.”
M1, Hungary’s main state television channel — which previously gave no airtime to Tisza candidates — has begun featuring the new prime minister. Meanwhile, the private broadcaster TV2 Group fired its Orbán-loyalist news director and canceled the anti-Tisza program Tények.
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