Magyar Nemzet

Magyar Nemzet is a major Hungarian newspaper. Its name literally means "Hungarian nation".

History

The original, moderate conservative daily was founded by Sándor Petheő in 1937. It fused with the other conservative daily Napi Magyarország in April 2000.

The current newspaper is considered to be close to Fidesz, and often voices support for this party, led by Viktor Orbán. Its editorials often speak out against the socialist and liberal parties, MSZP and SZDSZ.

Political and other outspeaks, supporters, allies

Common themes addressed in the pages of Magyar Nemzet include:

• The demographic and moral decline of the nation. It states its opposition to single, childless and same-sex lifestyles, blaming them for the record-low birth rate in the country and for a general moral decline.^{[citation needed]}
• State bias against ethnic Hungarian people forced to live abroad as minorities in the surrounding countries ever since the end of World War I.
• Perceived fiscal and media bias against traditional churches and religions by the state, the intelligency and foreign investors.
• Protest against a "decadent urban lifestyle" being forced on villagers by the overwhelmingly commercial media and the liberal-led (2002-2006) ministry of education, till 2006. Opposition against the introduction of "respectless", liberal Anglo-Saxon methods of education and support for the current, Prussian-derived schooling system .
• Preservation of historic and traditional Hungarian culture, art and special way of life, especially those practiced by farmers with small holdings. The newspaper is also opposed to genetically modified food.
• The newspaper tends to recall and condemn the horrors of the post-WWII Hungarian communist dictatorship of Mátyás Rákosi and early János Kádár. It is more forgiving towards the pre-WWII governor of Hungary, Miklós Horthy.
• Researching the hidden self-transformation of former communist establishment into rich capitalist business people, most notably the origin of the wealth possessed by the current MSZP leadership, especially Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány.
• Opposition of cultural and economical globalization, condemnation of US-Israeli military activities, support for the right of Latin American and Palestinian self-determination.

Its major rival is the much higher circulation Népszabadság, the (former communist party) newspaper that most supports the current socialist MSZP/SZDSZ government. Magyar Nemzet's editorials often complain about bias of the more readily available Népszabadság and the current government's de-facto censorship by cutting off funds for conservative news ^[1]

Media partners of Magyar Nemzet are HírTV^[2], Hungary's first news channel which relayed live the 2006 protests in Hungary in the autumn of 2006 , Lánchid Rádió and Duna Televízió^{[citation needed]}, the latter being a non-profit TV channel which airs 24-hour satellite-based broadcast aimed at Hungarian minorities abroad but also available for the domestic population. They have been struggling for audience^{[citation needed]}, as the young and adult population mostly favour the commercial and liberal media.

Critics

The liberal and socialist media routinely accuse Magyar Nemzet of advocating anti-semitism (by stating that they are and of openly opposing the modern principle of separation of church and state, and not reporting about Israel, or the Israeli-Palestine conflict).

External links

• Magyar Nemzet Online
• ICON: International Newspaper Database

References

1. ^ BBC report on the Hungarian press
2. ^ HírTV - Nyitólap