{"id":26651,"date":"2019-05-16T16:35:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T16:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev2.atlatszo.exot.hu\/?p=26651"},"modified":"2022-07-07T08:28:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T08:28:31","slug":"media-funding-record-in-transylvania-a-network-of-businesses-covered-in-mist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prod2.atlatszo.exot.hu\/en\/important-en\/media-funding-record-in-transylvania-a-network-of-businesses-covered-in-mist\/","title":{"rendered":"Media funding record in Transylvania: a network of businesses, covered in mist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hungarian government granted a support of 6 million EUR to a Transylvanian NGO following a previous grant of 4,5 million EUR. How does the current readjustment and upgrade of Hungarian media in Transylvania and the Hungarian media of the Carpathian Basin look like? If success is measured by the number of businesses being set up around the NGO, we are indeed witnessing a real success story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One year after the \u201cvertical and horizontal development\u201d<\/a> of the Erd\u00e9ly 3.0 \u201ccomplex concept\u201d, there is no visible output of the 1.45 billion HUF (4.5 million EUR) grant of the Hungarian government. On the 20<\/span>th of March 2019 another 1.9 million HUF (6 million EUR) were allocated by the Hungarian PM to the Erd\u00e9lyi M\u00e9diat\u00e9r Association (its official name: Asociatia pentru Spatiul Media Transilvan).<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the 1148\/2019. (III. 20.)<\/a> governmental decision the grant aims to support the \u201cHungarian language media of the Carpathian Basin\u201d, and will be wired through the Bethlen G\u00e1bor Foundation in 2 installments of 950 million forints.<\/p>\n

But how was the previously allocated 1.45 billion HUF spent?<\/h2>\n

We are still groping in the dark as the Ministry of Human Resources denied to release<\/a> the detailed budget, narrative proposal and financial report. The reason? In December 2018 the beneficiary asked for a change in the document, and the contract is undergoing changes, thus the information we requested is used as a reference in the decision making process.<\/p>\n

The Freedom of Information Act in Hungary was amended in 2015, and information used to ground decision making process was exempted from the range of public information. This became the perfect blanket rule:<\/a> as all information is used as basis of reference in decision making processes, it can be applied to anything.<\/p>\n

But the amendment of the contract is not the reason why the Ministry of Human Resources rejected releasing public information: in July 2018, when the amendment of the supporting document hasn\u2019t been launched yet, we were denied the requested information<\/a> and data regarding the detailed budget plan and the narrative proposal with the same argument, that the information qualifies as data used as a basis of reference for making future decisions.<\/p>\n

The contract does not reveal what the money is being spent on<\/h2>\n

Previously, in March 2018 we handed in a similar FOI request to which we didn\u2019t receive any answers<\/a> \u2013 truth be told, a couple of weeks sooner, the Ministry of Human Resources released the contract signed with the Erd\u00e9lyi M\u00e9diat\u00e9r Association, but the contract contained no information<\/a> on what the money was spent on.<\/p>\n

Why are we interested in the financial support received by the Erd\u00e9lyi M\u00e9diat\u00e9r Association? The NGO in the past published the medium-sized Foter.ro<\/a> internet news website, and was basically unknown up until December 2017, when it received 1.45 billion forints, equaling 4,5 million euros from the Hungarian government.<\/p>\n

This amount was astronomical. Just to give you a sense of the annual budgets of Hungarian media in Transylvania: Foter.ro news website previously a yearly budget of 40 million HUF (120,000 EUR). The yearly budgets of the szekelyhon.ro<\/a> having a similar number of readers as maszol.ro<\/a> was of 180,000 EUR. (Our article on the Hungarian government funding of the Hungarian online media in Transylvania can be accessed here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The guesses about how this money will be spent started instantly. It was clear right from the start that the bigger part of this amount will be used for saving the Udvarhelyi H\u00edrad\u00f3 Ltd., currently undergoing bankruptcy. We wrote a summary about the situation of the company, which found itself in the middle of the Simicska-Orb\u00e1n quarrel in December, 2017.<\/p>\n

Long story short, by December 2017 several dailies (Kr\u00f3nika, V\u00e1s\u00e1rhelyi H\u00edrlap, Cs\u00edki H\u00edrlap, Gyergy\u00f3i H\u00edrlap, Udvarhelyi H\u00edrad\u00f3), and one weekly (Erd\u00e9lyi Napl\u00f3) as well as the most viewed news portal (szekelyhon.ro), all published by Udvarhelyi H\u00edrad\u00f3 SRL found themselves in deadlock and asked for bankruptcy protection.<\/p>\n

Besides bad management, the company found itself trapped in the middle of a political game. The relation between Hungarian PM Viktor Orb\u00e1n and his former ally, the leader of Fidesz\u2019s economic heartland, Lajos Simicska deteriorated.<\/p>\n

In 2015 the conflict escalated into an open war, which, besides threatening messages being sent to one another, also meant that the Hungarian government did everything to make Simicska\u2019s situation difficult and eventually push his companies out of business. They have succeeded following the elections of 2018.<\/p>\n

The situation affected the Udvarhelyi H\u00edrad\u00f3 SRL:<\/p>\n

1. The owner of the company, <\/span>\u201eHat\u00e1rok n\u00e9lk\u00fcl a magyar sajt\u00f3\u00e9rt\u201d Foundation (<\/span>Without Borders for the Hungarian Press Foundation) was controlled by Simicska;<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Simicska was not willing to invest in the Hungarian media abroad, but wasn\u2019t willing to hand over the media to Orb\u00e1n for free;<\/p>\n

3. Because they were afraid that Simicska would use the state support for own purposes, the Hungarian government and state companies were reluctant to sponsor the foundation;<\/p>\n

4. Udvarhelyi H\u00edrad\u00f3 Ltd. wasn\u2019t able to cover its expenses, and asked for bankruptcy protection.<\/p>\n

2018 was the year of acquisitions<\/h2>\n

How does the project initiated by Szil\u00e1rd Demeter, the unofficial ambassador of the Erd\u00e9lyi M\u00e9diat\u00e9r Association look like and how was it designed to significantly alter and modernize the Hungarian media in Transylvania? Demeter has no official role in the association, but he was the one who lobbied for the huge amount of funding eventually granted by the Hungarian government.<\/p>\n

Demeter, having Sekler roots has graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, and started his political career as the press officer of MEP L\u00e1szl\u00f3 T\u0151k\u00e9s. After that he started working for Sz\u00e1zadv\u00e9g Foundation, a think thank close to the Hungarian government. It is not known what he was working on there, but there are signs that he was in the team of \u00c1rp\u00e1d Habony, a communications guru of the government. Not long ago he was named the director of the Pet\u0151fi Literary Museum.<\/p>\n

In January 2018, Demeter gave an interview about his plans<\/a> in the Hungarian media in Transylvania:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe presented a complex concept, which besides building an integrated media contains also the elements that could shape and create the Transylvanian media scene, and provided the concept for all those platforms that would be put in the service of community building. We would mostly favor online platforms, as this is the direction where things are going.<\/p>\n

We are not only thinking about platforms, but also of an efficient online content management and we have suggestion for developing other ideas as well. We are looking into developing infocommunications solutions that could help the actors of the Hungarian arena of the neighboring countries. There is a separate workgroup which is focusing on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A simple media consumer wouldn\u2019t be able to tell that the media outlets in the interest of Erd\u00e9lyi M\u00e9diat\u00e9r Association have flourished following the significant capital they had received. The quality of the content is the same as it was before, there are no signs of technical developments, and the initial enthusiasm of the journalists also disappeared.<\/p>\n

It is also true though, that we have not seen propaganda either, despite the fact that the media in Hungary has been completely transformed into a propaganda machine, and many feared that this will happen in the Transylvanian media as well.<\/p>\n

A series of small businesses started to gravitate around the NGO. Because of the denial of the release of public information, we need to rely on the Romanian company database and a couple of facts mentioned by L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Sz\u0151ke, the director of the media portfolio in his essaylike paper<\/a> published on the 4<\/span>th of March, 2019. We have addressed him a series of questions related to the events in 2018, but we are still waiting for his answers. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Rekord\u00f6sszeg\u0171 m\u00e9diat\u00e1mogat\u00e1sok Erd\u00e9lyben: burj\u00e1nz\u00f3 c\u00e9gh\u00e1l\u00f3, nem sz\u0171n\u0151 hom\u00e1ly – \u00c1tl\u00e1tsz\u00f3 Erd\u00e9ly<\/a><\/h4>\n

Tegnap \u00fajabb 1,9 milli\u00e1rd forint t\u00e1mogat\u00e1st \u00edt\u00e9lt meg a magyar korm\u00e1ny az Erd\u00e9lyi M\u00e9diat\u00e9r Egyes\u00fclet sz\u00e1m\u00e1ra a kor\u00e1bbi 1,45 milli\u00e1rd ut\u00e1n. De hogy \u00e1ll jelenleg az erd\u00e9lyi \u00e9s K\u00e1rp\u00e1t-medencei magyar m\u00e9dia nagyszab\u00e1s\u00fa \u00e1talak\u00edt\u00e1sa \u00e9s korszer\u0171s\u00edt\u00e9se? Ha az egyes\u00fclet k\u00f6r\u00fcl megjelen\u0151 c\u00e9gek sz\u00e1ma a siker m\u00e9rc\u00e9je, akkor egy igazi K\u00e1rp\u00e1t-medencei sikersztorinak vagyunk a szemtan\u00fai.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n