Budapest: His studio is temporary and his funds largely overcrowded, yet HungaryThe top YouTube politics channel is one of the few voices criticizing the government in the country.
Partizan Sunday’s general election in which the nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban is facing its toughest battle for political survival in years.
Founder and Host marten gulasiWhich presents at least one discussion, debate show or in-depth interview a day, says it aims to “liberate the political imagination of the people”.
“The public media here has no ambition to create public service content, only to spread government propaganda,” GullyasiThe 35-year-old, bearded and slim, told AFP.
“It doesn’t work for people as it should, instead it destroys and intoxicates public discourse and debate,” he said.
Partizan’s studio is in a dilapidated red-brick warehouse on the outskirts of Budapest. The channel pays a fraction of the approximately 350-million-euro taxpayer-funded budget annually on Hungarian public broadcaster MTVA.
The MTVA, which enjoys a state-of-the-art headquarters just a kilometer (mile) from Partizan, faithfully follows the government line of the day.
News items typically attack the European Union, migration or opposition, and currently chime with Orban’s neutral approach to Russian aggression.
The Central European country is now ranked 92nd, the second lowest in the European Union in the annual press freedom index by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
Independent news outlets have been largely squeezed because their licenses have been revoked or editors replaced with those supporting the government line.
During the election campaign, MTVA’s news television channel M1 and radio stations bombarded viewers with orbnance-friendly messaging.
M1 replayed Orban’s March 15 National Day address nine times the next day.
On the same morning Orban’s challenger, provincial mayor Peter Markey-Jay, was given just five minutes to outline his election manifesto on the channel, although for the first time in four years an opposition politician had been given an opportunity to speak on the M1. platform was given.
government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs denies that public media coverage favors Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.
“If you listen to the morning news on the radio, it’s clear that there are different kinds of views and opinions,” he told AFP.
Partizan now has more than 270,000 subscribers, a number that Gulyas says is growing dynamically and the channel is funded by thousands of micro-donations.
“If you like what we do, please consider a donation,” said the host, signing off on an election debate show with a trademark point on camera.
Formerly a theater group manager, then a key activist, who was arrested five years ago for throwing paint at the presidential palace, Gulias founded Partizan in 2018.
Some government figures dare to question Partisan, but invite orban Those who have also refused to debate the challenger marquee-zay, cabinet ministers and Fides politicians, remain unanswered.
“I like to reach outside my bubble,” Gulias said, but he “acknowledges that going to his shows is risky for politicians.”
An opinionated comment by Marki-Zay about Ukraine The war was seized by the Orban campaign during a Partizan interview.
“Asking fair and clear questions may not strengthen the opposition’s position, but I can’t do the interview any other way,” Gulias said.
Agnes Urban, a media expert at the Mertec Media Monitor watchdog, says Partizan is “vulnerable because it can be shut down for any reason” by internet giants.
“It is up to the decisions of major digital platforms, for example, to shut down YouTube, or if Facebook decides that some of its content is inappropriate or illegal, or indeed if the EU imposes stricter rules on digital platforms in the future. There is nothing Partisan can do in these matters,” Urban said.
a former employee at the public broadcaster between 2015 and 2019, Andras Rostovnik31, leaked a hidden recording of an editorial meeting in which top managers instructed employees to cover politically sensitive topics with pro-government leanings.
“Some of my colleagues may consider me a traitor, but I don’t think I am,” the former Foreign Desk journalist told AFP.
“Actually, my former boss is the one who has betrayed public service. I have done more public service than him, just by revealing it,” he said.
Partizan Sunday’s general election in which the nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban is facing its toughest battle for political survival in years.
Founder and Host marten gulasiWhich presents at least one discussion, debate show or in-depth interview a day, says it aims to “liberate the political imagination of the people”.
“The public media here has no ambition to create public service content, only to spread government propaganda,” GullyasiThe 35-year-old, bearded and slim, told AFP.
“It doesn’t work for people as it should, instead it destroys and intoxicates public discourse and debate,” he said.
Partizan’s studio is in a dilapidated red-brick warehouse on the outskirts of Budapest. The channel pays a fraction of the approximately 350-million-euro taxpayer-funded budget annually on Hungarian public broadcaster MTVA.
The MTVA, which enjoys a state-of-the-art headquarters just a kilometer (mile) from Partizan, faithfully follows the government line of the day.
News items typically attack the European Union, migration or opposition, and currently chime with Orban’s neutral approach to Russian aggression.
The Central European country is now ranked 92nd, the second lowest in the European Union in the annual press freedom index by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
Independent news outlets have been largely squeezed because their licenses have been revoked or editors replaced with those supporting the government line.
During the election campaign, MTVA’s news television channel M1 and radio stations bombarded viewers with orbnance-friendly messaging.
M1 replayed Orban’s March 15 National Day address nine times the next day.
On the same morning Orban’s challenger, provincial mayor Peter Markey-Jay, was given just five minutes to outline his election manifesto on the channel, although for the first time in four years an opposition politician had been given an opportunity to speak on the M1. platform was given.
government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs denies that public media coverage favors Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.
“If you listen to the morning news on the radio, it’s clear that there are different kinds of views and opinions,” he told AFP.
Partizan now has more than 270,000 subscribers, a number that Gulyas says is growing dynamically and the channel is funded by thousands of micro-donations.
“If you like what we do, please consider a donation,” said the host, signing off on an election debate show with a trademark point on camera.
Formerly a theater group manager, then a key activist, who was arrested five years ago for throwing paint at the presidential palace, Gulias founded Partizan in 2018.
Some government figures dare to question Partisan, but invite orban Those who have also refused to debate the challenger marquee-zay, cabinet ministers and Fides politicians, remain unanswered.
“I like to reach outside my bubble,” Gulias said, but he “acknowledges that going to his shows is risky for politicians.”
An opinionated comment by Marki-Zay about Ukraine The war was seized by the Orban campaign during a Partizan interview.
“Asking fair and clear questions may not strengthen the opposition’s position, but I can’t do the interview any other way,” Gulias said.
Agnes Urban, a media expert at the Mertec Media Monitor watchdog, says Partizan is “vulnerable because it can be shut down for any reason” by internet giants.
“It is up to the decisions of major digital platforms, for example, to shut down YouTube, or if Facebook decides that some of its content is inappropriate or illegal, or indeed if the EU imposes stricter rules on digital platforms in the future. There is nothing Partisan can do in these matters,” Urban said.
a former employee at the public broadcaster between 2015 and 2019, Andras Rostovnik31, leaked a hidden recording of an editorial meeting in which top managers instructed employees to cover politically sensitive topics with pro-government leanings.
“Some of my colleagues may consider me a traitor, but I don’t think I am,” the former Foreign Desk journalist told AFP.
“Actually, my former boss is the one who has betrayed public service. I have done more public service than him, just by revealing it,” he said.