Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has put Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on its list of “predators,” the first time a Western European leader has been placed in the lineup of heads of state or government who “crack down massively” on press freedom.
The list published on Monday includes 37 leaders.
Two women — Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) — were also added to the list, as well as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
Photo: AFP
This was the first time in five years that the watchdog, known by its French initials RSF, has published its press freedom predator’s list.
The report said Orban “has steadily and effectively undermined media pluralism and independence since being returned to power in 2010” by using “varied predatory techniques.”
“The methods may be subtle or brazen, but they are always efficient,” the report said, citing control over 80 percent of the media via purchases by oligarchs close to Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Private media in Hungary are discriminated against in access to information and government advertising, and denigrated as purveyors of “fake news,” the report said.
Lashing back, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said RSF “should be called ‘Fake News Without Borders.’”
Tamas Deutsch, a founding member of Fidesz and a European Parliament lawmaker, wrote on Facebook that the report was the part of “the latest wave of attacks against Hungary.”
As for Prince Mohammad, the RSF report said: “His repressive methods include spying and threats that have sometimes led to abduction, torture and other unthinkable acts. Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific murder exposed a predatory method that is simply barbaric.”
Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who visited the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul to procure documents to marry and was brutally slain inside it in 2018.
The report said Lam “has proved to be the puppet of Chinese President Xi Jinping [習近平], and now openly supports his predatory policies towards the media.”
It noted the recent closing of Hong Kong’s leading independent newspaper Apple Daily and the jailing of its founder, Jimmy Lai (黎智英).
Lam was joined on the predator list by Hasina.
“Her predatory exploits include the adoption of a digital security law in 2018 that has led to more than 70 journalists and bloggers being prosecuted,” RSF said.
RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire urged world governments to disavow the practices used by the leaders it singled out and to recognize the positive contributions made by an independent press.
“We must not let their methods become the new normal,” the report quoted Deloire as saying of the leaders that his group deemed predators.
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