Hungary has banned a list of 12 Ukrainian media outlets, calling it a reciprocal move in response to Kyiv’s earlier decisions to ban outlets due to Russian interference.
Kyiv has recently banned multiple pro-government Hungarian websites, including Origo and Demokrata, for disseminating Russian propaganda.
Gergely Gulyás, head of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office, announced the ban on Facebook on Monday and framed Kyiv’s original ban as a targeted move against those who “dared to write about the influence-peddling activities of the Soros Foundation.”
“Ukraine, which is seeking to join the European Union, blocked foreign – including Hungarian – internet news sites because they dared to write critically about the sanctions policy against the Russians, the armed support for Ukraine, and dared to portray the European Union and NATO as fragmented (!) and not very effective organizations,” Gulyás wrote.
“The real crime, however, is that they dared to write about the influence-peddling activities of the Soros Foundation.”
Orban has for years accused Hungarian-born US investor George Soros of allegedly plotting to flood Hungary with migrants and used the latter as a scapegoat for his nationalist agenda.
Gulyás then said that Budapest is banning a list of Ukrainian media outlets in response, listing them along with links to the sites themselves, which included outlets such as TSN, Ukrainska Pravda and New Voice of Ukraine.
1. tsn.ua
2. oboz.ua
7. hromadske.ua
8. nv.ua
9. lb.ua
11. uaonline.com.ua
Gulyás added that he believes people are unlikely to read Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet founded by journalist Georgiy Gongadze, who went missing in 2000 and was believed to have been assassinated for political reasons.
Gulyás also argued that the EU would become even more “fragmented” if Ukraine were to join the bloc.
“And if the fragmentation of the European Union gives rise to state censorship in Ukraine, then it is time for Ukraine to abandon its intention to join. With Ukrainian accession, the EU would only become even more fragmented,” he wrote.
Gulyás then used Soros as a scapegoat by arguing that the media should target actual interference in politics, not those who criticize Soros – despite the ban bearing no relation to Soros.
“And if someone wants censorship, it would be better to limit Soros’s interference in the internal politics of sovereign countries, not the free expression of opinion about it,” he added.
Budapest, Kyiv’s diplomatic spat
The ban marked the latest in the diplomatic spat between Kyiv and Budapest, which started in May when Kyiv accused Budapest of setting up a spy ring in western Ukraine to gauge locals’ reaction to a potential Hungarian invasion.
The incident led to bilateral expulsion of diplomats, as well as Budapest’s high-profile arrest of a former Ukrainian diplomat who later proclaimed to be a Russian, not Ukrainian.
The spat was rekindled when Ukraine targeted the Druzhba pipeline inside Russia, which supplied Hungary with Russian oil. Budapest protested against the attack and banned the Ukrainian commander of Hungarian descent who led the operation, with more bans on entry for officials from both sides.
On Friday, Sept. 26, Kyiv also accused a Hungarian drone of violating its airspace, to which Orban said on Monday that it is of “no significance” in a statement that downplayed the incident while tacitly acknowledging that it happened.
“But let’s say it had flown in a few meters. So what? Ukraine is not an independent country. Ukraine is not a sovereign country,” Orban said.
Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.