The proposed tax would have destroyed all media not benefitting from state publicity, Volner said. He suggested that the proposal was aimed at forcing private owners to get rid of their media outlets, which he said was equal to an attack against press freedom.

Volner noted that the advertisement had been levied in Hungary once before, in 2014, but parliament was obliged to scrap the law under a decision by the European Commission.

He added that the measure had seriously impacted commercial TV channel RTL Klub, the “only major commercial TV the government has not been able to acquire yet”.

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

MTI photo: Bruzák Noémi