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Broadcasts on Hungary’s national television and radio channels stopped on Tuesday afternoon after a temporary management team was installed.
Shutting down the service had long been a promise of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who took power in April after ousting Viktor Orbán, who had governed Hungary for 16 years.
MTVA’s television channel is currently showing a black screen with a message of apology: “Public media cannot lie. We apologise because we did this anyway.”
The message went on to say the broadcaster will be restructured to become independent and credible in future.
On Monday, the temporary management team was appointed to oversee the transition to a new structure. Several managers and journalists were dismissed with immediate effect, and Hungarian media reports say staff were escorted from the building by security guards.
“A historic day. Today, the broadcast of propaganda on public media platforms ended,” Magyar said on social media.
MTVA had faced years of criticism under the Orbán government, with opposition parties and international organisations accusing it of biased coverage, while Magyar accused it of spreading disinformation during this year’s election campaign.
Following April’s vote, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) found that MTVA’s coverage had been systematically skewed, with news programmes “openly and disproportionately” supporting the ruling parties’ narrative while marginalising or negatively portraying opposition voices.
The OSCE said the broadcaster had failed to provide a level playing field for political actors during the campaign.
“Opposition politicians were given almost no opportunity to speak in the news broadcasts, or if they did, they were discredited with editorial commentaries,” it said.
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