'Distorted' Media Could Mar Hungary Vote: UN Expert

A UN expert Monday warned Hungary to ensure that state-funded public media provides "impartial" coverage ahead of an election next year where Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces a tough fight

Budapest, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Nov, 2021 ) :A UN expert Monday warned Hungary to ensure that state-funded public media provides "impartial" coverage ahead of an election next year where Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces a tough fight.

Orban, who has wielded power since 2010, has transformed the public media into propaganda organs while his allies have steadily bought up swathes of the private media sector.

"I see a distorted media environment in Hungary where plurality, independence, and diversity of media is being questioned," Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said.

"Therefore it is important to ensure that in the context of the elections there is fair reporting, and access for all candidates on a fair and equal basis, and a state-supported public service that maintains an impartial approach to the different parties and candidates," Khan told a press conference.

The nationalist Orban and his ruling Fidesz party face an election slated for next April against an opposition alliance with polls predicting a neck-and-neck race.

In recent years many independent outlets have either gone out of business or been bought by government allies and have adopted a pro-Orban stance, while receiving lucrative flows of state advertising.

Media laws, policies and practices in Hungary "have been used to create on the ground realities that fly in the face of international rights and standards," said Khan, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and a former head of the international rights monitor Amnesty International.

"That makes it difficult for the electorate to participate freely in the debate that needs to take place for democratic, fair, and open elections," said Khan.

The lopsided media landscape and "restricted" access to information in Hungary was cited by election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as part of an "adverse climate" that helped Orban win a third consecutive term as premier in 2018.

Since 2018 "the situation has worsened," said Khan, stressing the need "for reinforced attention and action," by international election observers like the OSCE.