Support democracy in Hungary with new Radio Free Europe broadcasts

[Commentary] There are serious reasons for bringing back Radio Free Europe’s Hungarian broadcasts, which ended in 1993.

• The first is the current demise of Hungarian media freedom, both the root and the finest fruit of all other liberties.
• Second, one of the lessons of Europe’s last century is that broadcast monopolies by nationalist governments lead to international tensions and conflicts. Indeed, Orban’s anti-democratic measures could encourage politicians in nearby Slovakia and Romania to imitate his combination of anti-foreign sentiments and denial of free debate on public airwaves.
• Third, given the similarities in recent Russian and Hungarian attacks on the United States, Hungary may well be the first ideological outpost of Putin’s constitutional dictatorship. Supporting the European Union’s repeated warnings about Hungary’s democracy deficit, Washington should take steps to counter emerging authoritarianism in Central Europe before it becomes a trend.

When it seemed that pluralistic democracy and a free market had taken root in Hungary, Radio Free Europe appeared to have fulfilled its mission. Now those values are officially deposed, and a legal system has been built to prevent their comeback even after the next elections. Restoring the Hungarian service could be a crucial step in promoting fair and decent values in Hungary, and in protecting democratic achievements elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe.

[Mark Palmer was the U.S. ambassador to Hungary from 1986 to 1990. Miklos Haraszti, a Hungarian author, was the representative on freedom of the media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe from 2004 to 2010. Charles Gati is a professorial lecturer in Russian & Eurasian studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.]