Emails, internal messages and editorial instructions reveal how political influence may have shaped the work of the Hungarian News Agency, MTI, for more than a decade. Several MTI reporters and news editors handed a 482-page dossier to the newly appointed leadership of the public media, documenting cases between 2015 and the day before the 2026 election that they describe as censorship, manipulation and falsification of news. The published material indicates that Bertalan Havasi, former press chief to Viktor Orbán, as well as the press officer of former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, regularly sent direct instructions to MTI staff. Some reports were cut, others were blocked entirely, while certain topics could only be published with the approval of a senior editor. Duna Médiaszolgáltató Zrt. ordered an internal investigation at the same time as the documents were released.

Evidence was collected for more than ten years

The dossier was compiled by a group of MTI correspondents and news editors who called themselves the Pro Domo working group, a reference to internal information distributed to reporters at the agency.

The earliest document dates from 2015, while the latest was created on the day before the 2026 election. For more than a decade, the journalists recorded cases in which, in their view, reports were altered, withheld or commissioned on political grounds.

According to the public media’s statement, the journalists attempted to perform their duties conscientiously. Nevertheless, professionally sound reports were sometimes prevented from entering the newswire, while others were substantially modified during the editorial process.

Balázs Bende personally altered reports

The statement says politically inconvenient stories sometimes ended up in the bin. In other cases, Balázs Bende, a senior editor at MTVA, personally intervened in the wording of reports.

The published material suggests that decisions about the fate of news items were not based exclusively on professional considerations. Whether a report could appear also depended on how closely it aligned with the Orbán government’s political messaging.

MTVA also released a 15-page attachment containing correspondence between foreign affairs reporters, public media managers and political actors. The attachment represents only a fraction of the 482-page collection, but it includes several concrete instructions.

Szijjártó’s press officer told MTI not to question Lavrov

According to the documents, Máté Paczolay, press officer to then foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, once instructed an MTI correspondent not to ask Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov any questions at a joint press conference.

Paczolay also told the reporter that the statement later to be published by MTI would be sent by the ministry itself. The ministry normally republished MTI stories as its own statements, but in this case the text was apparently intended to originate from the ministry before appearing on the state newswire.

The episode suggests that the correspondent’s room for manoeuvre was restricted before the press conference had even begun. Not only was the journalist prevented from asking questions, but the content of the resulting report was also to be determined by an external political actor.

Havasi sent both the headline and the summary

The collection also includes an email from Bertalan Havasi, then press chief to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In it, Havasi did not merely suggest a topic or provide background information, but sent both the proposed headline and the summary of the article he wanted MTI to publish.

The document indicates that, in some cases, government communications directly determined how a report should appear on the state news agency’s platform. This went far beyond the normal practice of a press office supplying facts or an official position to a newsroom.

According to the statement, such interventions were not isolated. Instructions from political actors and externally written texts may have been a recurring element of the newsroom’s operation.

References to an attempt to remove Putin were deleted

The selection lists several reports that were cut or blocked entirely. In September 2022, for example, a report about political protests against the war in Russia was stripped of the information that district councillors in Saint Petersburg had called for Vladimir Putin’s removal by parliament on grounds of treason.

As a result, the report omitted one of the most politically significant elements of the protest. The removal reduced the apparent importance of the opposition action and the seriousness of the challenge to Putin.

The Pro Domo group recorded the case as an example of politically inconvenient information being deliberately excluded. The source material indicates that the deletion was not justified by concerns about accuracy or verification.

The Transparency International corruption report was blocked

MTI was also not allowed to report in January 2023 on a Transparency International assessment naming Hungary as the most corrupt member state of the European Union.

According to the documents, the information could not be processed at all. Suppressing the story directly benefited the government, because a highly critical international assessment did not reach the public through the state news agency.

A similar fate befell a report on 9 May 2025 concerning an announcement by the Security Service of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said they had detained suspected Hungarian spies who were allegedly gathering information about Ukraine’s defence capabilities in the south-western part of the country, but MTI was not permitted to cover the story.

Numerous foreign policy stories failed the political test

Several other foreign policy reports were also blocked. One concerned the economic damage the war in Ukraine could cause to Europe, while another covered the Romanian prime minister’s condemnation of Viktor Orbán’s remarks in Tusnádfürdő about the “mixing of races.”

MTI was also prevented from reporting former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s statement that the paths of Poland and Hungary had diverged. A report that the Wagner Group was recruiting mercenaries in Russian prisons was likewise withheld.

The list also includes a story alleging that an Israeli company could sell Hungary software designed to map and track activity on social media. Another blocked report concerned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saying he was prepared to hand over power if he lost an election.

Reports about Ukrainian prisoners and a Gallup poll were also suppressed

The public media did not process accounts from released Ukrainian soldiers who said they had been tortured and abused in captivity. According to the dossier, such reports did not fit the political framing then applied to the war.

A November 2024 Gallup survey showing that a majority of Ukrainians wanted a rapid peace settlement was also blocked. This was particularly notable because calls for peace had become a central message of the Orbán government.

Another suppressed report covered Sergey Lavrov’s reaction to one of the intercepted and leaked telephone conversations he had held with Péter Szijjártó. The examples indicate that even stories partially compatible with the government’s rhetoric could be withheld if they were considered politically inconvenient for other reasons.

Entire topics were placed under special control

The system did not only target individual stories. Entire subject areas were placed under additional editorial restrictions, meaning reports could only be released with the approval of the senior editor responsible for the full news output.

This applied to all stories involving the United States Agency for International Development, USAID. From August 2025 onward, every report concerning Israel was also subjected to mandatory senior-level approval.

For journalists covering these areas, the normal editorial process was therefore replaced by an additional political or managerial filter. Publication depended on approval beyond the ordinary newsroom hierarchy.

“Orders from above must be carried out”

One internal email included in the collection provides a particularly stark picture of the atmosphere within MTI’s foreign affairs department. The message warned staff that orders coming from above were compulsory and not open to discussion.

“Once again, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that orders from above must be carried out,” the email said. It added that employees should not attempt to argue, because it was better for everyone to complete such assignments as quickly as possible.

The wording suggests that politically driven requests had become part of everyday newsroom operations. Journalists were expected not only to comply with instructions, but also to refrain from questioning their professional legitimacy.

Duna Médiaszolgáltató launched an internal investigation

Duna Médiaszolgáltató Zrt. ordered an internal investigation as the documents were made public. The statement did not specify who would conduct the inquiry, how long it would take or which management periods it would cover.

The investigation is expected to determine who issued the instructions appearing in the emails and screenshots. It will also have to establish what organisational structure allowed political and ministerial actors to directly influence the content of MTI’s news service.

The allegations are especially serious because MTI is funded from public money and its reports are used by numerous Hungarian newsrooms. Political distortion at the agency may therefore have affected not only public media audiences, but the wider Hungarian information environment.

The 482-page dossier may reveal a systematic pattern

The 15-page selection released to the public is only a small part of the Pro Domo group’s 482-page collection. Even the published examples suggest that the interventions were not limited to one subject, one official or one newsroom manager.

Government press officers, public media executives and editors all appear in the material. The withholding, rewriting, commissioning and pre-approval of stories together suggest a broader system of political control.

The internal investigation may now determine how deeply these practices were embedded in MTI’s operation and who bears responsibility. It will also be crucial to see what safeguards the new leadership introduces to ensure that political actors can no longer dictate the headlines, questions and editorial decisions of Hungary’s state news agency.

MNO – Magyar News Online

Fotó: MTI

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