Balázs Gulyás

I have worked for many years in mainstream journalism in Hungary. This has allowed me to experience in-depth the sophisticated means that an authoritarian system uses to choke-off press freedom in incremental stages.
I've published articles in English, a language I enjoy and speak well.
In 2018 my previous outlet, the newspaper Magyar Nemzet, was purchased by businessmen intimately connected to Viktor Orban’s governing party, Fidesz. The paper was shut down and the journalists fired. A group of us started up an independent paper from scratch, the weekly called Magyar Hang. Despite the fact that the paper has to be printed abroad because Hungarian printing houses are afraid to print it, and despite the fact that potential advertisers are intimidated by the government, Magyar Hang has negotiated the challenges of this hostile environment to become Hungary’s second largest weekly newspaper.
The effort has not been without cost. At times, I have been viciously attacked by name in the Fidesz-controlled media. Even worse, in October 2020, a specialist unit of the Hungarian police summoned me to appear for questioning. They wanted to know why I had published information about Viktor Orban's main oligarch ally, Lőrinc Mészáros, who had parked two military tanks parked next to one of his lakes. In November 2021, my car was damaged in what I have good reason to believe was a politically motivated attack.