commbox Hungary

Media capture in Central and Eastern Europe: The corrosive impact on democracy and desecration of journalistic ethics

William Horsley

In: The Routledge Companion to Journalism Ethics

Lada Trifonova Price; Karen Sanders; Wendy N. Wyatt (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2021), 9 pp.

"This chapter examines the root causes, development, and corrosive effects of the progressive “capture” of influential media by populist governments and other vested interests in Central and Eastern Europe over the past 20 years. Many countries in the region have proved vulnerable to media captu ... more

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A Lockdown for Independent Media? Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Media Landscape and Press Freedom in Central and Southeast Europe

Maxim Edwards (ed.)

Budapest: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES);N-ost Netzwerk für Osteuropa-Berichterstattung (2020), 37 pp.

"Correspondents in nine countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia – have analysed how the pandemic has affected to their work environment. Lockdowns have caused print media sales and advertising revenue to collapse. Media w ... more

Building Trust in Journalism: Hungary

Aida Kaisy

Ethical Journalism Network (EJN);Evens Foundation;Fritt Ord Foundation (2020), 18 pp.

Trends in the Business of Misinformation in Six Eastern European Countries: An Overview
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Judit Szakács

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2020), 11 pp.

"All six reports find that misinformation is prevalent, yet the channels used for distribution of such content are somewhat different. The misinformation landscape in Serbia, for example, is dominated by mainstream media outlets. Small misinformation websites simply cannot compete with “misinforma ... more

Freedom of Expression in Times of Covid-19: Chilling Effect in Hungary and Serbia

Kristina Cendic, Gergely Gosztonyi

Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, volume 6, issue 2 (2020), pp. 14-29

"New technologies have opened several risks to safety of journalists. More importantly, in the state of emergency caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, journalists and media actors have shifted their activities online more than ever, which also made them more prone to digital threats and attacks. In some ... more

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The Unbearable Ease of Misinformation

Semir Dzebo, Dumitrita Holdis, Jozef Michal Mintal, Judit Szakacs

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2020), 163 pp.

"Misinformation is a lucrative business in several Eastern European countries, reliant on advertising revenue, and pulling in cash from a variety of other sources including government subsidies, crowdfunding, tax designations, donations and sales of merchandise. The Business of Misinformation projec ... more

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Digital News Report 2020

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Anne Schulz, Simge Andi, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2020), 111 pp.

"The bulk of this report is based on data collected by a survey of more than 80,000 people in 40 markets and reflects media usage in January/February just before the coronavirus hit many of these countries. But the key trends that we document here, including changes in how people access news, low tr ... more

Media, Freedom of Speech, and Democracy in the EU and Beyond

Angelos Giannakpoulos (ed.)

Tel Aviv University, S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies (2019), 158 pp.

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Médiations et migrations

Paris: L'Harmattan (2019), 308 pp.

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CANnual Report 2019: Changing Landscapes. The Past Five Years of the Advertising Industry of Central and Eastern Europe

Budapest: WeCAN Communications, 5th annual report (2019), 177 pp.

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Vergeben und vergessen? Erinnerungskultur

iz3w, issue 373 (2019), pp. 16-37

"In den 1980er Jahren verstärkte sich das Unbehagen an der Gedenkkultur mit ihren Heldenerzählungen und nationalen Beschränkungen. Mit der größeren Komplexität des Gedenkens und der Hinwendung zu den sozialen Kosten historischer Ereignisse prägte sich eine neue Erinnerungskultur aus. Diese is ... more

The Business of Misinformation: Hungary. Pushing Politics, Picking Pockets

Judit Szakács

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2019), 20 pp.

"It is almost impossible to obtain information about who is behind Hungarian misinformation websites; financial information about them is even harder to come by; Hungarian misinformation websites fall on the spectrum from purely ideological sites to simple moneymaking machines; Facebook appears to b ... more

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Digital News Report 2019
Top Insights

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2019), 153 pp.

"Despite the efforts of the news industry, we find only a small increase in the numbers paying for any online news – whether by subscription, membership, or donation. Growth is limited to a handful of countries mainly in the Nordic region (Norway 34%, Sweden 27%) while the number paying in the US ... (16%) remains stable after a big jump in 2017. • Even in countries with higher levels of payment, the vast majority only have ONE online subscription – suggesting that ‘winner takes all’ dynamics are likely to be important. One encouraging development though is that most payments are now ‘ongoing’, rather than one-offs. In some countries, subscription fatigue may also be setting in, with the majority preferring to spend their limited budget on entertainment (Netflix/Spotify) rather than news. With many seeing news as a ‘chore’, publishers may struggle to substantially increase the market for high-priced ‘single title’ subscriptions. As more publishers launch pay models, over two-thirds (70%) of our sample in Norway and half (50%) in the United States now come across one or more barriers each week when trying to read online news. In many countries, people are spending less time with Facebook and more time with WhatsApp and Instagram than this time last year. Few users are abandoning Facebook entirely, though, and it remains by far the most important social network for news. Social communication around news is becoming more private as messaging apps continue to grow everywhere. WhatsApp has become a primary network for discussing and sharing news in non-Western countries like Brazil (53%) Malaysia (50%), and South Africa (49%). People in these countries are also far more likely than in the West to be part of large WhatsApp groups with people they don’t know – a trend that reflects how messaging applications can be used to easily share information at scale, potentially encouraging the spread of misinformation. Public and private Facebook Groups discussing news and politics have become popular in Turkey (29%) and Brazil (22%) but are much less used in Western countries such as Canada (7%) or Australia (7%). Concern about misinformation and disinformation remains high despite efforts by platforms and publishers to build public confidence. In Brazil 85% agree with a statement that they are worried about what is real and fake on the internet." (Summary, page 9) more

Trust in the Media

Ipsos (2019), 48 pp.

"People across 27 countries are divided on whether they trust traditional media (magazines and newspapers, TV and radio). These sources are equally trusted as they are distrusted. However, levels of trust in media sources vary greatly at the country level. Trust in traditional media is perceived to ... more

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Disinformation Resilience in Central and Eastern Europe

Kyiv: Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism” (Prismua);Eurasian States in Transition Research Center (EAST Center) (2018), 335 pp.

"This research is aimed at assessing national vulnerabilities and preparedness to counteract foreign-led disinformation in 14 countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The Visegrad states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), Eastern Partnership countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia ... more