The Socialists said that the suspension marks a “black day” in the history of the Hungarian press and press freedom since the democratic transition.

Népszabadság, which has served as one of the leading organs of the opposition press over the past 25 years, has been “practically turned off” in a move which “cannot be explained by financial losses,” a Socialist party lawmaker said.

Ágnes Kunhalmi noted that the daily had recently published reports on “scandals surrounding the National Bank of Hungary and György Matolcsy”, its governor, as well as the “helicopter affair” of cabinet office chief Antal Rogán, and asked whether the paper’s suspension could be related to these stories.

She added that business circles close to governing Fidesz had earlier ruined news portals Origo and Vs.hu, commercial broadcaster TV2 and the Pannon Lapok group of newspapers, while turning state media into a “party propaganda mouthpiece”.

What is happening in Hungary evokes Putin’s Russia,” she said. The leftist DK party said the decision was “one of the most vile attacks against Hungarian democracy and press freedom”.

The party deemed the measure “a new chapter in the construction of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s dictatorship” and said it would appeal to the leaders of the EU, the Council of Europe and the OSCE to ”condemn the Orbán government’s step”.

The small green LMP party called the move unacceptable in a democracy and called on ruling Fidesz to prove that it is not responsible for the paper’s suspension.

The suspension of the newspaper “goes too far”, Bernadett Szél, the party’s co-leader said during a party congress, adding that “what is at stake now is whether the Hungarian press can remain free and the government can be held accountable for its acts”.

Szél said the party congress unanimously voiced its solidarity with the daily. Radical nationalist Jobbik said the “undermining” of Népszabadság was another example of the “uninhibited megalomania of Viktor Orbán”, not market logic.

The state of Hungary’s left is clearly reflected in their inability to defend even their own media, the party added. Governing Fidesz said it viewed the suspension as a business decision, not a political one, considering its sizable losses.

“A violation of press freedom would be interfering with a media owner’s decisions,” the party said, noting that the paper had earlier been owned by the opposition Socialists, but they had parted with their stake in 2015.

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

MTI photo: Balogh Zoltán