The head of Hungary’s Office of the Prime Minister Gergely Gulyas announced an “anti-war action plan,” designed to deal with the “political, legal and financial blackmail” being thrown at Budapest, aiming to force the country to join the West’s war drive in Ukraine. At his press conference yesterday, he described measures that would require media outlets that promote belligerent policies of “war propaganda” to reveal the sources of their funding.
The Justice Ministry is to develop and provide guidelines for a media outlet to be able to know what constitutes such “war propaganda.” Further, if the foreign sources are found to be funding such “war propaganda,” the government could block such funds or force a refunding of the money.
Hungary’s neighbor, Slovakia, saw the media frenzy get out of control when the elected Prime Minister Robert Fico drew the line against military support for neighboring Ukraine, and a climate was created leading to the assassination attempt of May 15. Budapest appears to be taking tough pre-emptive measures against such foreign-driven propaganda drives. Gulyas stated: “There is no blackmail that [can force] Hungary to change its conviction that every political step must [aim at] the end of war.”