Hungary's public media outlets, including Kossuth radio and M1 TV, suspended broadcasting on Tuesday. Viewers and listeners were met with a black screen and an on-screen apology as the state media went dark.
The suspension occurred after the new government installed interim management and sacked staff accused of pro-Orbán bias. This action is part of a broader effort by Prime Minister Péter Magyar to dismantle one of Viktor Orbán's most potent tools of power and end years of propaganda that had propped up the former leader.
Péter Magyar, who ousted Orbán in a landslide election victory in April, hailed the move as a historic day. He stated that the suspension marks the end of propaganda broadcasts on public media platforms, asserting that the outlets lied day and night on every wavelength.