Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 08 October 2016: Protests in Hungary after closure of main opposition left wing paper

The independent Hungarian tradition newspaper "Nepszabadsag" has surprisingly stopped publication on Saturday. The owner of the Austrian-owned Mediaworks AG, justified this decision by emphasizing the losses of the newspapers and the need to aim for a more viable business model. Also the currently ruling Fidesz party has described the closure as a business decision. Many of the employees just learned about the closure of the newspaper when they were denied entry on Saturday and now the employees talked about a "coup" that was politically motivated.

Furthermore, journalists claim that the suspension resulted out of the papers repeated allegations about scandals from Viktor Orbán`s party over the last months. Thus, the opposition parties claim that Orbán wanted to suppress press freedom and gain media control.This led to demonstrations by several thousand people on Saturday evening in front of the parliament in Budapest. The protest was supported by public figures and journalists. Also Martin Schulz expressed his support by stating that he stands in solidarity with the protesting Hungarians.