Hungarian public media outlets halt broadcasting in post-Orbán shake-up

The M1 channel, on a television in Budapest, shows a message that begins: ‘Public media should not lie. We are sorry for doing it for so long.’ Photograph: Márton Mónus/Reuters

Hungarian public media outlets close to Viktor Orbán have suspended broadcasting, the country’s prime minister said as he hailed efforts to dismantle the longtime nationalist leader’s control over information.

Péter Magyar, who ousted Orbán in a landslide election victory in April, wrote on Facebook: “A historic day. Today marks the end of propaganda broadcasts on public media platforms. They lied at night, they lied during the day, they lied on every wavelength. That is now over.”