Népszabadság

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Népszabadság is a major left-leaning "liberal" Hungarian newspaper, founded in 1956. "Népszabadság" literally means "People's Freedom", and is a reference to the paper's communist roots: it was the mouthpiece of the communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party until 1989 and is often considered as supportive to the present Hungarian Socialist Party.

The current editor-in-chief is Károly T. Vörös. The paper has its main offices in Budapest at Bécsi út 122-124, in the third district. In 2004, the newspaper secured enough funds to build an entirely new, high capacity, full color print-house for its own exclusive use, which is unprecedented among the Hungarian press. The colorification was meant to preserve the Népszabadság's uncontested number one position among daily newspapers. It has more copies circulated than all of its Hungarian competitors combined, although circulation is slowly weakening.

This newspaper is mostly owned by foreign media interests although the Szabad Sajtó foundation, created by the MSZP party, owns 26,7% of Népszabadság's shares.^[1]

Naturally, the paper is close to the MSZP and SZDSZ parties and its editorials often support the current socialist government. Its editorials often speak out against the right-wing Fidesz party. On international agenda it is usually supportive of US and Israeli policies, rare criticism includes G. W. Bush's "democracy export" initiative.^[2] Népszabadság follows the US nomenclature in labelling certain countries rogue states or part of the axis of evil and is highly critical of Arab countries, both on political and (female) rights grounds. Népszabadság supports a pragmatical approach to relations with Putin's Russia, based on realities of the Hungarian and EU energy import structure, instead of a human rights and democracy deficit based criticism.

In 2003, Népszabadság was subject to a high profile scandal for the paper had published a fake letter on the front page from Edward Teller. The fake letter pretending to be from the Hungarian-born physicist appeared in Népszabadság shortly after his death, claiming to express dissatisfaction with the opposition parties. The letter turned out to be fabricated by the pensioner journalist László Zeley, friend of the then editor-in-chief of Népszabadság, Pál Eötvös. Despite pressure, Pál Eötvös didn't resign and later became the president of The Association of Hungarian Journalists (MÚOSZ).^[3]

The paper's main political opposition comes from the Magyar Nemzet, the only major conservative paper in Hungary. The 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.^[4]

Two prominent and controversial journalists writing for Népszabadság are Endre Aczél and György Bolgár. The political right often cites their past in the communist state-party MSZMP and suggests such tainted personalities should be banned from influencing public opinion (a law to that effect was enacted in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution). Aczél was editor-in-chief of the daily and weekly news programs on state-run Hungarian Television under the communist dictatorship. Bolgár hosted, from 1986, a political radio show called "Rádiónapló" on state-run Hungarian Radio. His show is considered by many historians to have been a tool of communist party agitation.