Hungary’s regime is exporting instability and propaganda to the Balkans · Global Voices
Protest against the law aimed at closing down Central European University (CEU) and in support of civil society on 12 April 2017 in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Open Society Foundations, CC BY-NC-ND.
An investigation conducted by independent Macedonian news outlet Nova TV has found that some of the media that drove right-wing populist propaganda in Macedonia during the tenure of the Russia-supported VMRO-DPMNE (2006-2017) administration were financed through Hungarian crony companies.
In an article titled “Orban in action to rescue <PERSON>'s ‘megaphones'” Nova TV editor <PERSON> revealed cash flow and ownership links between important Macedonian right-wing propaganda outlets like Kurir.mk, Republika.mk and Alfa TV, with <PERSON>, the chief spin doctor of Hungarian prime minister <PERSON>, who has been called “Hungary's <PERSON>”.
These outlets have recently been showing banner ads for websites owned by a Slovenian company, Ripost Založništvo d.o.o. Some of the ads redirect to RipostMk.com, a little-known Macedonian-language media outlet whose editors and staff remain anonymous. It's owned by Ripost, with a domain admin with an email address from the Hungarian consulting company netlight.hu.
Screenshot of the front page of Kurir.mk with two ads for Ripost websites, and a main article associating Macedonian PM <PERSON> with Greece in the context of the name dispute.
With help from Slovenian colleagues, Macedonian journalists obtained data from the Slovenian central registry showing that Ripost is owned by a Hungarian citizen, <PERSON>. In July 2017 <PERSON> became a co-owner of Macedonia's Alfa TV, while in Slovenia he acts as a representative of a group of Hungarian companies, including Modern Media, which is financed mainly by the Hungarian government through ‘public interest’ media campaigns. Modern Media has received a large chunk of the 40 million euros spent by the Hungarian government on <PERSON> propaganda in 2017. (Editor's note: Global Voices is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations, founded by <PERSON>).
“<PERSON> needed a mythical enemy which cannot really fight back and #OSF organisations have been consciously demonised,” said Atlatszo editor <PERSON> | #Hungary #orbanland #pressfreedom https://t.co/uSlMyTlY3n
— Atlatszo.hu (@Atlatszo) April 20, 2018
What kind of sites has been supported by Hungarian capital?
In recent years, Macedonian media outlets benefiting from Hungarian ads and ownership have been linked to controversies regarding their often secretive ownership, transparency of their newsrooms and financing sources, and their lack of adherence to the Code of Journalists.
For instance, Kurir.mk is generally considered the unofficial mouthpiece of the Center for Communication of former ruling party VMRO-DPMNE. Most of its articles are not signed and allegedly written by party apparatchiks.
In the early years of its existence, Kurir.mk was mainly financed with Macedonian taxpayers’ money, through public procurement contracts for “audiovisual services” such as live streaming events for state institutions. 363
These contracts were all just below the 5000-euros threshold that allows procurement through a public tender. State bodies and state-owned companies provided supplementary support by purchasing banner ads.
According to the investigative project Mediapedia, the original owner of the news site Republika.mk was an offshore company registered in Belize whose proprietors remain unknown. Ownership was inferred from the fact that the shell company was registered at the same address as other companies linked to powerful Macedonian oligarchs and government cronies. The outlet actively persecuted activists and independent journalists by publishing defamatory articles. The Directorate for Personal Data Protection confirmed that Republika.mk made use of personal data obtained illegally by state institutions, and that some of their intended victims sued the outlet in 2016. The courts are yet to pass judgment on the matter.
Alfa TV was founded in 2008 by a businessman affiliated with the then opposition as an urban television station and built its reputation on professional reporting, cultural coverage and high-quality film programming. After a hostile takeover in 2013, the station attracted a string of domestic and foreign (Serbian and Hungarian) owners, alleged proxies of the ruling party. The station shifted its programming to entertainment based mainly on turbofolk music and the original news staff were either fired or forced to resign. 704