Încă un indiciu că Trump ori e şulfă ori nu-şi face ordine-n "aparat"

Departamentul de Stat american anunţă că deschide o linie de finanţare pentru presa ungară "urgisită" (de Orbán-Fidesz, "desigur"...). Nu ştiu să se fi interzis vreo publicaţie în Ungaria, problemele care au fost au apărut din cauze economice şi din schimbarea acţionariatelor. "Cauze economice" - doar n-or avea pretenţia să-i mai ţină statul ungar în braţe cu subvenţii şi deduceri la taxe; au vrut "piaţă liberă" - acum o au! Ca şi în România (şi nu numai), presa tipărită este falimentară, nu se mai poate susţine exclusiv din vânzări, cel puţin nu à la longue. Cotidianele sunt aproape sau net pe pierdere, fiind menţinute-n viaţă doar fiindcă servesc unei propagande sau alteia. Subvenţionarea mascată poate fi şi sub acoperirea unor contracte publicitare inexplicabil de avantajoase.

Aşadar, regimul Trump atacă regimul Orbán (după ce beneficiase - prin Ungaria - de o rară susţinere din partea unui stat UE). Dacă despre al doilea mari rezerve nu pot avea în afară de menţinerea Fidesz-ului în PPE*, despre primul încep să-mi fac o imagine tot mai clară: it belongs to The Swamp, too.

* unde nu are prieteni, oricât s-ar autoamăgi


U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT COMES TO THE AID OF THE BELEAGUERED REGIONAL PRESS IN HUNGARY

On November 9 a highly unusual announcement appeared on the website of the U.S. State Department. The Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announced a “funding opportunity” for the support of “objective media in Hungary.” DRL supports “those persons who long to live in freedom and under democratic governments that protect universally accepted human rights.” DRL is normally not involved with European countries, especially those that are members of the European Union and are supposedly developed countries with the necessary set of democratic institutions.

This was such stunning news that even the Hungarian ministry of foreign affairs and trade was unable to respond. The grant of 200 million forints or $700,000 means that the United States no longer considers Hungary a democratic country where the free flow of information can be taken for granted. Earlier, when U.S. Chargé d’Affaires David J. Kostelancik delivered a tough speech at the headquarters of the National Association of Hungarian Journalists, both Tamás Menczer, foreign ministry spokesman, and Levente Magyar, its undersecretary, were outraged and complained about interference in Hungary’s domestic affairs. But when 444.hu, the internet news site that discovered the item on the website of the State Department, asked the foreign ministry for its reaction, it got the following brief answer: “Unusual step; we are studying its aim and goal; for the time being we have no comment.”