EDITORIAL CURBS
Hungary news site highlights media fears about crimped editorial freedom
Journalists working at Index.hu fear investors in control of the news portal are linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orban and right-wing group
Budapest — The largest source of independent news in Hungary briefly took down the front page of its online portal on Monday to sound the alarm over what it sees as its declining editorial freedom and to secure funding to protect its independence. Journalists working at Index.hu fear the two investors who took control of the news portal in September may be linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his governing right-wing Fidesz Party and may try to curb their editorial freedom. "On Monday morning we did something unprecedented: we switched Index off for a time so that those who consider it important get a glimpse of what it would be like without us," editor-in-chief Attila Toth-Szenesi wrote in an article. He said the acquisition was "a matter of vital importance" because the new owners control the Index, a separate company, CEMP, which sells its advertising space, and another company which provides the editorial systems. Toth-Szenesi fears the acquisition was somehow funded by ass...
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