A bulwark of democracy: We need to secure media freedoms

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán’s was re-elected last weekend to serve a fourth term as prime minister. The victory by Orbán, the nearest thing to a totalitarian dictator in today’s Europe, is not in any way surprising. The idea of a functioning, secure opposition in Hungary is like the idea of moving statues — you can believe it if you want but...

Since being returned as prime minister in 2010, Orbán has emasculated Hungary’s democratic tradition of checks and balances. Hungarian courts are no longer independent. Orbán long ago recognised that his anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-European Union, and proudly illiberal worldview could not prevail if his country’s media was allowed to exercise what we all take for granted — the freedom to report and criticise without fear of retribution from a reactionary administration.