The media empire controlled by Viktor Orban’s party FIDESZ in Transylvania is collapsing: 70% of journalists have been fired 

The Mediater association, through which Viktor Orban’s FIDESZ party controls much of the Hungarian-language press in Romania, is laying off two-thirds of the journalists working for its newspapers, and 70% of the group’s staff will be laid off as of January, the independent Transtelex reports.

The layoffs come amid the economic crisis already unfolding in Hungary, where the state budget is under severe pressure to cope with galloping inflation and the energy crisis.

The management of the media holding, funded by Hungarian taxpayers’ money, has failed to make it viable even with the €20 million it has received since it was set up, so more layoffs can be expected in the coming year.

It should be recalled that the Hungarian-language press in Romania is almost entirely controlled by Budapest after the UDMR accepted that the Viktor Orban government should fund traditional publications in Transylvania.

The instrument through which Budapest has taken control of the Hungarian-language media space in Romania is the Association for the Transylvanian Media Space (Erdélyi Médiatér Egyesület), which has received a total funding of over €20 million directly from the Hungarian budget for its press trust.

An Atlatszo investigation in 2021 revealed that the Association for Transylvanian Media Space (Mediater) has received a record funding from the Hungarian government of €20 million over a few years. Thanks to this funding, in a few years the previously unknown association became by far the largest media trust in the Hungarian press in Transylvania, with a portfolio so extensive that it is easier to list media organizations that are not part of it, wrote journalist Zoltan Sipos at the time.

Contrary to expectations, the group of companies operated by the Transylvanian Médiatér Association will not only make layoffs in the editorial offices of print newspapers but also in the online publications and radio stations it controls, according to Transtelex.

The Hungarian taxpayer-funded media trust’s largest company, Prima Press Kft. of Odorheiu Secuiesc, announced more than two weeks ago that it will suspend publication and distribution of its print products – Krónika, Székelyhon, Székely Hírmondó, Heti Hirdető, Nőileg – as of 30 December 2022.

Editors, copy editors, proofreaders, and technical workers involved with printed pages and distribution have been dismissed. But layoffs are widespread: only a third of the ninety or so full-time journalists will remain employed at the media holding company that operates many newspapers and radio stations.

According to Transtelex information, at the daily Kronika (launched as early as 1999) only 6 of the 17 full-time journalists will remain employed. The newspaper’s Cluj editorial office will also be closed.

The Székelyhon newspaper and news portal will also suffer significant staff cuts. Only one of the three journalists from the Târgu Mureș newsroom will remain at the station from January and the Târgu Mureș newsroom will be closed. According to Transtelex, only two of the dozen full-time journalists at the Székely Hírmondó daily, which was acquired just a few weeks ago, will remain on the payroll.

Főtér.ro is not spared from the wave of layoffs either. According to information from Magyar Hang , photographers working for print newspapers and online sites will also be laid off.

In addition, redundancies will also occur at radio stations, which are theoretically profitable. At Gaga Rádió in Târgu Mureș, at least two news editors and announcers will be laid off, as well as the entire staff of weekend programmes. At Gaga Rádió in Sfântu Gheorghe, at least three people have been told they will be made redundant from January, and there will also be redundancies at Gaga radio in Gheorgheni.

Several employees told Transtelex that it was not the fact of the layoffs but the scale of them that came as an unpleasant surprise to them. „We have known for more than two weeks that there would be layoffs. But we didn’t expect so many people to be laid off. And the reason is simply that there is no money,” said one of them.

„These people were discouraged by the uncertainty. There’s no guarantee that the 70 percent layoffs won’t be followed by more layoffs next year. All we’ve been told is that there will be a redesign of the newspaper family. But the truth is that the Hungarian media holding in Transylvania has collapsed. Under the new conditions, it will be very difficult to do quality journalistic work,” said one journalist on condition of anonymity.

László Nemes, managing director of Prima Press Kft. considered the flagship of the media trust, which also publishes Krónika and Székelyhon, told Transtelex that it had not yet been decided how many employees would be laid off as of 1 January.

„Seventy percent is not an exact number, just an order of magnitude. The reorganization is ongoing. But the explanation for a large number of layoffs is that we are liquidating the print newspaper delivery network as we stop printing publications,” he said. When asked about the fact that not only newspaper distributors but also two-thirds of journalists will be laid off, László Nemes interrupted the conversation.

„The collapse can be closely linked to the fact that the group of companies was not able to stand on its own feet after its establishment in 2018 and continues to rely on Hungarian budget funds. However, Budapest has already started to turn off the money taps last year, and given the state of the Hungarian economy, the outlook for next year is even bleaker for the Transylvanian Mediater Association,” the independent publication Transtelex reports.

Translated aricle