The Hungarian border village helping Ukraine's refugees

 

In the village of Beregsurány, on the Hungary-Ukraine border, a crowd of volunteers are tending to refugees flooding in, cooking them pancakes, and helping them to continue their journeys. In contrast to the refugee crisis of 2015, the Hungarian media is celebrating those helping, and welcoming the new arrivals. John Domokos meets the villagers and displaced Ukrainians of all ages, who've suffered traumas, and are coming to terms with life never being the same again.

How Democracy Dies

 

A look at Hungary and Myanmar and how they expose some of democracy’s different vulnerabilities.

Where once tanks would roll into the streets to silence dissent, today, authoritarian rule is often imposed much more subtly, yet just as effectively.

We travel to Hungary, described as the European Union’s first outright dictatorship, where radio journalist Mihail describes how, in an act of media suppression, the government has suspended his radio licence. It was the beginning, he says, of wider attempts to control the media. Csaba Lukacs, an independent journalist, supports this claim; he risks jail for distributing his newspaper.

Anger grows in Hungary over China's university plans in Budapest

 A new partnership between Beijing and Budapest has angered Hungarian taxpayers who will have to carry the nearly one billion euro financial burden.

China is building a European campus of its Shanghai-based Fudan University.

Hungary reopens amid spike in COVID deaths | COVID-19 Special

Hungary has the highest number of people vaccinated in Europe and one of the highest COVID-related death rates worldwide, relative to its population. Healthcare workers say restrictions should've been in place sooner and should stay in place longer.
 

Death by a thousand cuts: Press freedom in Viktor Orban's Hungary

One of Hungary's most credible and adversarial news outlets - Index.hu - loses its editor.

Index.hu, Hungary's last big independent outlet, is one step closer to being under the control of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Hungary: Europe's Bad Boy

We investigate why Hungary, under its authoritarian leader Viktor Orban, has repeatedly clashed with the European Union.

In his youth, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was hailed as a champion of freedom, a key figure in the generation of pro-democracy activists who stood up to the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.

These days he is routinely characterised as an authoritarian, far-right nationalist figure, a demagogue whose migrant-bashing agenda poses a significant threat to Western democratic norms.

Hungary: Orban's media manipulation exposed

If the polls are to be believed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban could win his third, consecutive election this April. Should that happen, the media there will have played a large part.

Since coming to power for the second time in 2010, the Orban government has devoted considerable energy and resources to restructuring the domestic media landscape in its favour.

According to the investigative journalism outlet Atlatszo.hu, allies of the prime minister and his Fidesz party have been buying up numerous, private Hungarian media outlets since 2010. Men like former Hollywood producer Andy Vajna and old school friend Lorinc Meszaros are among a group of 14 Orban allies who have collectively bought 20 television channels, 11 radio stations and close to 500 online and print organisations.

Should all EU countries share role in taking refugees?

The EU's top court is hearing lawsuits filed by Hungary and Slovakia against a mandatory quota to accept asylum seekers.

Should all countries in the European Union share the responsibility to deal with one of the world's largest refugee crises in recent history? That is the crux of the case facing judges at the leading court in the European Union.

The European Court of Justice is hearing lawsuits filed by Hungary and Slovakia, which are challenging the European Union's mandatory quota to accept asylum seekers.

The recommendation to the judges is to dismiss the challenge - they are due to make a final ruling later this year.

But how many refugees fleeing war and persecution have these countries accepted to provoke such a challenge?

Killing The Ball

People & Power investigates how a match-fixer and his syndicate corrupted global football.


It is an odd place for the fate of the world football to be under consideration, but a drama that has been playing out in a Hungarian courtroom for almost a year now is, in its way, as important to football's future as any international tournament. It is certainly crucial to perceptions about its integrity.

The trial is all about match-fixing. Over the past few years, global investigators and police from several countries have unveiled an intricate international criminal network, run from Singapore. For well over a decade, prosecutors allege, this sophisticated syndicate manipulated and rigged football games at all levels around the world, from amateur matches, through professional leagues and international friendlies and all the way to the FIFA World Cup.

The trial has been taking place in Budapest because the syndicate had dealings across eastern Europe - in Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary - and most of the 12 defendants had specific local connections, but the principal defendant is actually being tried in absentia. According to Hungarian prosecutors, Singaporean national, Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, was the group's financier and mastermind, ensuring that its members and investors made many tens of millions of dollars by gambling on the games they fixed. He has been in custody in Singapore since October 2013 under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, which allows for indefinite detention or organised crime suspects.