As illiberalism spread across Europe’s political structure, independent publishing faces a whole new magnitude of challenges. Editors from the Eurozine network will meet in Krakow to discuss the coping strategies from across Europe.
It would have taken a miracle for Viktor Orbán to lose the election. Hungary is a fortified kleptocracy where the ruling party has captured the state and controls 80% of the media. It certainly didn’t help that the opposition’s campaign failed to deliver a post-illiberal vision. An editorial...
Journalism is steadily becoming less and less liveable, due to structural problems and political interference. From heroic poses to varying degrees of denial, each professional develops their own individual strategies to cope with sustained pressure. Editorial for Eurozine.
Since his return to power in 2010, Viktor Orbán has meticulously unravelled the rule of law and media pluralism, while holding the EU at bay. A short history of a decade’s attacks on the free press in Hungary. An article for the journal Osteuropa.
Post-Socialist baggage is sometimes still blamed for Hungarians’ support for an illiberal supermajority. But can a society be expected to democratize when its social institutions have been subjected to decades of attrition? An article for New Eastern Europe 6/2020.
While the rest of Europe is trying to keep citizens from mass economic ruin, the Hungarian government uses the coronavirus for another power grab, also coming down on theatres and transgender people. Orbán knows he can get away with it because he offers a key political product. Eurozine editorial.
Yet another independent outlet is slain in Hungary: Klubrádió just lost its broadcast license, resuming a decade-long campaign to silence the channel. Journalists march on, hoping for a lengthy legal battle to do them justice in the end. They have accommodated pressure, but their defiance comes...
Born in the ’80s in eastern Europe, I grew up among unkept promises which everybody refused to be accountable for. We were told we were going to be free. ‘It’s a free country!’ was a catch phrase in my pre-school, when fighting over toys. The Pet Shop Boys were played on the radio all the […]
A vicious cycle of destitution locks large numbers of Hungarian women into sex work. Moving to western Europe to avoid prosecution, their vulnerability and isolation only increases. Réka Kinga Papp for Eurozine on systemic exploitation in the European sex trade.
Power dynamics in Hungarian birthing care – a paper for Eurozine by Réka Kinga Papp