Governing Party Politicians Receive Most Airtime By Far On TV And Radio News Programs

  • 28 Sep 2017 8:46 AM
Governing Party Politicians Receive Most Airtime By Far On TV And Radio News Programs
The government and governing parties receive substantially more airtime on Hungarian television and radio news programs than all the opposition parties combined, according to statistics compiled this quarter by the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH).

According to the data, politicians from the governing Fidesz-KDNP coalition received the most airtime on TV2’s “Tények” (“Facts”) news program in all three of the months measured: on average, 79.6 percent of the airtime during which politicians appeared was devoted to the governing parties.

That’s compared to 75.8 percent of airtime on the state-run Kossuth Rádió “180 perc” (“180 Minutes”) program, and 74.2 percent on state-run television station M1’s “Hiradó” (“News”) evening news broadcast.

The most “diverse” news programs were those on commercial stations ATV and Hir TV, each of which featured opposition politicians in slightly more than half of the airtime in which politicians appeared. Politicians from the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) received the most time on all stations among the opposition parties, followed by far-right Jobbik and green party Politics Can Be Different (LMP).

Among party leaders, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received exponentially more speaking time than his nearest competitor, Jobbik chairman Gábor Vona. Orbán gives a roughly 30-minute weekly radio address on Kossuth Rádió’s “180 perc” program, which contributed to his 2 hours and 10 minutes of speaking time in June on news programs. This compares to 17 minutes for both Gábor Vona and LMP co-chair Bernadett Szél.

MTI Photo: Tamás Kovács

Source: The Budapest Beacon

Republished with permission

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