Hungary's pro-government media machine has recently launched a massive smear campaign against 444.hu and Bellingcat (NL), while also targeting their international partners, PressOne (RO), Gazeta Wyborcza (PL), and SME (SK). These outlets cooperate in a cross-border journalistic project, The Eastern Frontier Initiative (TEFI) covering regional security, co-financed by the European Commission.
The smear attack applies components and techniques of long-circulated Russian disinformation campaigns. Consortium members are accused of carrying out "active information warfare", allegedly financed and orchestrated by foreign powers (namely the US and the UK) and their intelligence services. According to the accusations the aim is no less than undermining trust in the Hungarian government’s actions, such as recent military buildup programs and the peace efforts of the Hungarian state regarding Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Centrally coordinated communication attacks on independent journalists in Hungary have not been uncommon in the past years. However, the recent establishment and increasing activity of Hungary’s so-called Sovereignty Protection Authority (an arbitrarily appointed body with a vaguely defined mandate and practically unlimited reach, operating without any democratic oversight) raise fear of false claims articulated in such smear campaigns could later be used as the basis for yet undefined actions against critical and independent media, including further harassment, surveillance and even investigations.
444, Bellingcat, PressOne, Gazeta Wyborcza, and SME jointly and fully refuse the allegations of this smear campaign, and strongly believe in the role of independent media as a crucial component of a healthy democratic establishment. They consider the seemingly government-supported campaign an assault on that very establishment, which is therefore to be spoken up against in the starkest manner and on the highest levels locally and internationally.
The project nominally under attack is TEFI, The Eastern Frontier Initiative supported by the European Commission. It is a collaboration of independent publishers from Central and Eastern Europe, in which participants jointly cover issues related to the widely interpreted security of the Central European region from natural resources to cyber security to defense and to personal safety. The aim of the project is to promote knowledge sharing in the European press and to contribute to a more resilient European democracy.
Bennfentes.net, the publisher of the initial article attacking TEFI is a known platform for launching anonymous smear campaigns strictly aligned with the political and communication interests of the Hungarian government. It has been used in notorious cases of publishing untruthful information (e.g. the alleged plan to sell the Budapest City Hall building) which would then be circulated by the immense media network controlled by the FIDESZ government and closely allied cronies: a large set of privately owned and state run outlets.
The pattern is repeated in this case: the original article has been recirculated by more than 15 outlets. The list includes the state television website (M1), numerous outlets owned by Mediaworks, the foundation into which government aligned oligarchs had consolidated all their close to 500 formerly acquired media entities (e.g.: Origo, Magyar Nemzet), and other privately owned entities known to be instructed from the Prime Minister’s Office (TV2 - Tények).
In the smear articles, Bellingcat, the renowned Netherlands based investigatory team providing online open source investigation trainings for the consortium is repeatedly accused of being closely connected and financed by the US and UK secret services. (Open source investigations are a practice of gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information from publicly available sources - a fast evolving and proven toolset and approach in contemporary journalism.) Attacks also target specific Bellingcat staff members and experts.
Other members of the consortium - 444 (HU), PressOne (RO), Gazeta Wyborcza (PL), and SME (SK), all leading independent media outlets in their respective countries - are referred to as members of the "Soros network" as seen in numerous smear campaigns before. Multiple authors are also called upon by name and implicitly accused to be serving (presumably hostile) interests of foreign powers.
The key allegation suggests that the TEFI project is an example of "global powers" (from the so called "Soros conspiracy" to 3rd party states) do not only contribute to financing media to "influence, flood, and manipulate" local audiences, but they also deploy intelligence service personnel to fully control the operations and narratives these allegedly pseudo-independent Central European outlets disseminate. By this, they supposedly contribute to undermining trust in the Hungarian government, and also hinder its diplomatic peace efforts.
If and when these accusations are internalized by the public and relevant authorities - and such communication campaigns are aiming at just that - they are to become the basis for further action against critical media.
The Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO, established with a law the constitutionality of which is highly debated if not fully denied by independent legal experts) is mandated and expected to find ways to step up against the few remaining defenders of freedom and democracy among Hungarian media players and NGOs on the basis of "breaching national sovereignty" . A separate piece of legislation is in the making at the Ministry of Justice. Based on a recent Government decision it should aim at sanctioning "war propaganda" and hinder the foreign financing thereof.
The SPO recently launched seemingly baseless and full scale "investigations" into the operations of the critical independent investigatory outlet Atlatszo.hu, and the most outspoken anti corruption NGO, Transparency International Hungary. Based on these precedents and the recent public statements of SPO officers, critical reporting published by 444.hu and its consortial partners will come under scrutiny as whether they represent "war propaganda" or "breach national sovereignty".
Once again 444, Bellingcat, PressOne, Gazeta Wyborcza, and SME jointly and fully refuse the allegations of this smear campaign, and strongly believe in the role of independent media as a crucial component of a healthy democratic establishment.