‘Shocking and unusual’ for intervention in democratic country’s media

Commenting on the US initiative to fund media organisations in Hungary with a view to correcting what it perceives as a media landscape biased towards the government, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called the move “shocking and unusual”.

Szijjártó said it was not normal practice for “a democratic country to start financing the media of another allied democratic country from its own budget”.

At a news conference held on another topic on Wednesday, Szijjártó was asked why the US charged affaires had been summoned to the ministry.

Referring to the US initiative sponsored by the state department to fund media beyond the capital through a bidding procedure, the minister asked:

“What is this if not interference in domestic affairs?”

He said many questions had been put to the American state department regarding the intervention, and the government awaited a response. One question, he said, concerned whether there were any other countries allied to the US that had received similar treatment.