Well I don’t know if Kyiv is going to fall tomorrow, but it is obvious there is a lack of…
The End of Free Transylvanian Press
Today I would like to start with a quote of Éva: An editorial in Transindex made fun of the description of Tusnádfürdő as the “center of the universe,” as a banner behind the speakers proudly announced. Moreover, it seems that God also had something to do with Tusnádfürdő: Zsolt Semjén attributed to divine will the coincidence that the opening of Tusnádfürdő also marked the happy event of registering the 300,000th new Hungarian citizen. No wonder that the author of the editorial in Transindex, Andrea Hosu, entitled her piece “Tusványos: Divine choreography in the center of the universe?” July 29th, 2012 ►EN.
The same Transindex was for many years the independent Hungarian language portal covering all Transylvania. The last of it’s kind. Being endangered by lack of financial means in a region where FIDESZ controlled media already had created hegemony, powered through Hungarian taxes. While the most projects abroad have been seen serious financial cuts through the debt crisis Orbán created at home through his “presents” for voters and for the means needed keeping his hateful ideology up even if the elections might be lost, some things remained unchanged. The Bethlen Gábor Alap, used for distribution of our taxes in Transylvania, had to reduce spending from 46.7 billion Forint (132 million Euro) to 13.3 billion (37.6 million,) but the Erdélyi Médiatér Egyesület, owner of FIDESZ media in Transylvania, got grants of 2.2 billion Forint (6.2 million Euro,) the Romanian Átlátso reported ►HU. Propaganda outlets mustn’t die.
Through gifts of readers Transindex was kept online, just the gifts they got the last few months were not even enough for paying the wages. The majority owner is about to sell and the future would be to become another FIDESZ mouthpiece.
Yesterday at noon the struggle for survival of the independent Transindex found an end. The entire editorial staff of Transindex resigned, a step we had seen before, when the Hungarian Index was sold to become another propaganda piece of the FIDESZ media empire. The last entry on transindex.ro reads ►HU:
This is the end: the entire editorial staff of Transindex has resigned
The moment has come for us to tell you about ourselves, and for many of us, this will be the last thing we write on the portal of Transindex. This morning, after 23 years operation, the entire editorial team of Transindex stepped up.
Why? Because we feel that our work within this institution has become completely impossible and we can no longer carry out our task at any time given to the best of our professional knowledge, the task of the free press. The team has changed many times since the start and Transindex itself has changed a lot as well, but we still certainly consider that it is important to stand by the same values as we once did, and that we are now not unwilling to do our journalistic work.
We all notice that the space of Hungarian freedom of speech and publicity in Transylvania has become more and more limited in recent times. For almost two years now we have been fighting for our survival in a politically determined environment, in which the press has only two options: either capitulating and to continue functioning as a mouthpiece according to the expectations of different political interests, or trying to continue on the job, however, in this case also taking the risk it would be made impossible. We have chosen the latter path and are packing now, because we have no other choice left.
From today on transindex.ro will no longer be the “sunny page” as advertised by our slogan, and – as the majority owner is about to sell – what will be its future is also unknown to us. And in the current context, we can’t any longer see our independence as journalists. To be sure, as long as we were from Transindex, this was the only highly read Hungarian media platform in Romania that was made according to the editorial staff’s own decisions and not according to some political party’s agenda. It doesn’t come as a surprise to us, but it’s still hard to comprehend that what was Transindex for decades now ceased to exist.
When we told you three months ago that our operations were in danger, a lot of you stood by us, anticipating that it could even come at a price. We have thanked you many times, but not enough times: once again, on the surface of Transindex for the last time, we thank those who have stood by us, read and supported us, pushed us! Thank You! Because there were indeed many of you who, with your support, bought us time to work for a while and to plan for our future. Of these many, many years, we will remember the most vivid months thanks to you.
What follows now? We take up the worldview of Kázmér Felméri again, and we first take Benő Karácsony and we are attuned in to what it was like to be on the “sunny side,” even in particularly difficult times.
One part of the “what follows now” question has been answered by Media 1 ►HU . Right as with Index in Hungary, where the entire staff left to start telex.hu there could be Transtelex. This webaddress has already been claimed, there has also been a co-operation between the old Transindex and Telex. Not the entire group of journalists will start this possible project, since one has already been hired by Azonnali.
Not in connection with these facts, but connected to free press comes the joke of the day, presented by minister Gergely Gulyás ►HU: “Germany is a large and diverse country, but there is a worrying lack of diversity in the German press.”
Voila, the “Council of Judges” (OBT) has already submitted to Orban's "reorganization" by the afternoon. https://obt-jud.hu/sites/default/files/ulesek/Osszefoglalo_2024.11.20.pdf
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What are Fidesz afraid of? I think we know the answer, they have a long history of suppressing any dissenting voices, people who don’t agree with and follow the NER mentality 100%, with the examples of Népszabadság, Klub Rádió, index.hu, Central European University, Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem to mention just a few. And now they’re exporting their monolithic approach to the media to Transylvania. I hope these journalists are able to find a way to continue reporting in some form or other.
It does make you wonder if they are meant to be so strong, and have so much to be proud of after 12 years in power, why they need to close down any sources of opposition (including the recent hacker attack on this website)?
Fist off this story in the Russian RT
news today https://www.rt.com/russia/549468-putin-donbass-genocide-claim/ does not indicate Putin intends on reducing tensions around Ukraine.
To the topic, transindex.ro no longer has the space to function as an independent Hungarian language publication because Transylvania itself has become heavily bilingual and there is a lot of intermarriage between Romanian predominant speakers and Hungarian predominant speakers. The final statement of the editorial staff completely evades the demographic issue.
Eva wrote repeatedly about the demographic evolution of Transylvania as a historical reality. Here in Chicago we have numerous couples that speak Hungarian, Romanian and English. In particular I see this in the Romanian Evangelical Churches in Chicago. Some women who are married to Romanian men still attend Hungarian Catholic Church and their children are raised as we Catholics say in the faith.
But what I see is not what could be called balanced bilingualism, i.e. the individual knows both languages to the same extent even in University educated couples. In some cases the marriages are from people who come from families of mixed ancestry going back in time.
I was formally taught Hungarian in my church by instruction from by women who largely spoke the Székely dialect, but I also had one instructor who spoke in the Csángó dialect. So my own extended family in Esztergom has commented on that repeatedly when I butcher Hungarian pronunciations.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/16/us-uk-russia-invasion-ingelligence-public-briefings This article attempts to explain the logic of US and UK intelligence services in revealing information to the pubic that is far from verifiable about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. I think these spook games with the Russians will totally not prevent Putin from invading if he decides too. The objective for the defense of Ukraine is to kill as many Russians as possible c creating a high cost.
The NATO countries are the safe harbor for a retreating Ukrainian Army to kill Russians for years if need be. Protracted war is never pretty. That prospect chills the fat Russian generals who command a conscript army that would much rather he drinking vodka than getting blown up and shot. The spook games by comparison are a joke.
The Russians will not invade IMHO; thought that when this mess kicked off and have seen, heard or read anything since to make me think otherwise. War would be stupid for any number of reasons; Putin is certainly an evil knut, but not stupid. He’s trolling the seps and euros and having a great old time. Playing them like a fiddle.
This is how I see it too and hope we’re both right!
Who are the seps?
septic tanks ~ yanks
Phil that is pretty close to the argument Magyar Nemzet via MTI presented today in this story https://magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/2022/02/milos-zeman-moszkva-nem-fog-tamadast-inditani-ukrajna-ellen today. Never assume Putin is completely rational nor any other political leader, it’s all relative to the politics of the moment. War is is politics Its the analysis of the current president of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman on the the failure of the US CIA to understand that Russia will not invade the Ukraine. He is quoted in this article as stating “The Russians are not fools to embark on an action that would do them more harm than good. This is the third failure for the U.S. secret services. The first was Iraq, where no weapons of mass destruction were finally found, and the second was Afghanistan, when the Americans claimed the Taliban would never occupy Kabul. And we are witnessing the third one now.”
I will not open the pandora’s box of discussing whether or not Miloš Zeman is or is not in fact a Putin operative as has been claimed in the Czech Republic following the attack by two officers of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service in Vrbetice in the southeast of the country on a ammunition depot that killed two people that even Eva commented on in the Hungarian Spectrum. But what I will say is Miloš Zeman does not understand how the failures of the CIA cites fail in comparison to other intelligence disasters that they have been involved in, including the invasion of Cuba, the invasion of Grenada that I participated in, the invasion of Panama that I also participated in based on a claim the head of government was an international drug dealer without revealing he was simultaneously on the CIA payroll, and the weapons of mass destruction claim against Iraq that led to our invasion of that country and between185,000–208,000 violent civilian deaths through February 2020. But the Russians, the British, German, French, and Chinese intelligence services have all had disasters because it is a very inexact basis for war and every intelligence estimate normally provides to government officials a probability of error which is always kept “top secret.” Then there are also actual lies presented to the public by politicians and by all intelligence services. Effectively war is politics by other means as Carl von Clausewitz put it.
But what Magyar Nemzet is doing with this article is joining up with Putin in attacking the USA and advising the Hungarian public that the Russians are of course telling the truth about having no intentions of invading Ukraine. In fact Magyar Nemzet in this article never mentions that Miloš Zeman in the wake of the annexation of Crimea, Zeman called for strong action to be taken, possibly including sending NATO forces into Ukraine, if Russia tried to annex the eastern part of the country. Speaking on a radio show he said that, “The moment Russia decides to widen its territorial expansion to the eastern part of Ukraine, that is where the fun ends. There I would plead not only for the strictest EU sanctions, but even for military readiness of the North Atlantic Alliance, like for example NATO forces entering Ukrainian territory.” Clearly Zeman’s own credibility has to be called into question.
It is interesting what Magyar Nemzet did with the aspect of the Transtelex story that Telex will absorb some of the staff that resigned see https://magyarnemzet.hu/belfold/2022/02/kinos-magyarazkodasra-kenyszerult-a-telex-foszerkesztoje. In this version its just a liberal cover for a take over. Unfortunately in either case the problems with a Hungarian language publication in Transylvania and the demographic evolution taking place is avoided.
That the market for Hungarian language publications is shrinking is no secret. This is not only true for Transylvania, but also for Hungary itself. However, the modern media as this internet portal, are often doing better than for example print media. Besides the fact that a lot of media companies have difficulties to stay in existence in this very case there obviously is a buyer who want to shut up critical voices. It is the same as we have seen with our index or with Népszabadság or, or, or. Just that the way smaller market of Transylvanian media is even more dominated by FIDESZ.
“It would not be good for the young Hungarian intellectuals in Romania to be informed from sources in Budapest, Bucharest, and the West only. It needs to produce its own information and interpretations.” https://telex.hu/belfold/2022/02/17/tamas-gaspar-miklos-transtelex
There was actually a more honest discussion of the problem of the entire Transtelex project in its own pages based on the demographics of Hungarians in Transylviania in 2004 (see https://itthon.transindex.ro/?cikk=2363). Where this was correctly stated “Functional illiteracy , which is slowly becoming commonplace – that is, Hungarians in Romania have been around for approx. 60% do not understand what they are reading.” That became obvious to me by the fact that numerous Transylvianians coming to Chicago post transition from Communism and who are devout Christians here in Chicago speak Hungarian but cannot read the Bible in Hungarian. Something that I have found stunning really.
However, Transtelex blames this on poor Hungarian educational standards and not as part of the linguistic shift to what can be called to forms of oral bilingualism in Transylvania. The article is actually a list of what it called taboo topics relating to Transylviania. Another one is highly relevant to the demographic shift it reads: “Not knowing the Romanian language. That we do have to learn Romanian, because it is not Romanian, but our interest. What do we do about it? Who dares to talk about this? Whoever dares to do so would immediately be accused of treason. When do we dare to talk about the fact that the Hungarian school is not only an advantage but also a disadvantage?”
It is interesting that a group of journalists can have a lot of insight into the realities of Transylviania, yet avoid the impact that will have on their project of having a progressive news site in the Hungarian language in Romania. I do not know what should be done about this reality by these obviously very smart journalists. Maybe doing much more of its work by video and podcasts that also are closed captioned in Romanian. It is a very complex situation they face.
Carrying on a pre-1944 Hungarian prescence in present day Romania is obviously a lost cause – But for Fidesz, it secures some votes.
Reality in Romania doesn’t include non-Romanian voices, but that’s not important in Hungary.