“This does not seem to have troubled the prime minister,” he said. Mediaworks has since been sold to Opimus Group, a holding company. Gyurcsány called the publication’s closure “the vilest” attack a government could launch against press freedom and democracy.

He said his party would not “let this thing pass” and insisted that a “new and democratic” government would strip Lőrinc Mészáros, a businessman associated with Opimus, the new owner of Mediaworks, of his “media empire obtained through deceitful, barbaric ways”.

If DK were to win power it would pass a new media law and ensure that Hungary’s press is free and independent, Gyurcsány said.

The public media in its current form should be scrapped and a “truly” independent television, radio, and public news agency created, he added. Fidesz group leader Lajos Kósa told a press conference held on a different subject that it was right that media on the Hungarian market should be in Hungarian ownership as much as possible.

Ownership structure should reflect the principle that media expressing opinions on vital issues should be “dedicated to the nation”, Kósa said, adding that a large presence of national capital in the media sector is important in every country and “this does not equate to a lack of media diversity”.

Addressing the issue of who owns the Opimus Group, Kósa noted the company is publicly traded and as such it would be “stupid” to describe it as having “close ties to Lőrinc Mészáros”. In response to another question, he said it was out of the question that Népszabadság would become close to the government.

Asked about the “appearance” of Gábor Liszkay, managing director of government-friendly Magyar Idők, around Mediaworks, he said Liszkay was not a journalist but a media manager and there were other examples in the Hungarian media market where one news outlet signs a contract with the manager of another one.

He added that “I do not know who plans what in connection with Népszabadság; it is a media issue that has nothing to do with us at all.”

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.