Nation's Future Built by Strong Institutions

The anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian state serves as a reminder that a nation's future is built not only by leaders but by strong and enduring institutions, the President of the Republic András Baka said in his festive address late on Thursday.

Speaking on public news channel M1 before the fireworks on the August 20 national holiday, the President emphasized that Hungary needed to build institutions which serve citizens, not those in power.

He said a state's quality was ultimately judged by how its institutions function. Public media, he added, was one such institution, which was why it was especially significant that its full news service resumed on Thursday in a renewed form.

The President noted that on July 7, public media screens went black, "the previously loud, strident, flashing surface fell silent," leaving only a message: "Public media cannot lie. We apologize for having done so for many years." "Rarely has television said so much by saying nothing at all," he said.

András Baka described the silence that replaced the news as a kind of dividing line, marking the end of one era and the promise of another. On Thursday, a month and a half later, the news service resumed, and "now we will see how that silence was used."

He emphasized that a fresh start alone was not enough, and that it was not enough to produce new programs or put new faces in front of the cameras. Public media faced the "much harder task of regaining the people's trust", the President said.

This trust could not simply be declared, it must be earned, he said, adding that if a public service channel "knowingly conceals, distorts, or misinforms, it commits one of the gravest offences against society."

For millions of Hungarians, public media is the primary, and for many, the only source of news, he said. Those who rely on it have the right to expect truth, not the suppression of important facts or decisions made by others about what they can know about their country and the world, András Baka added.

If this trust is broken, the responsibility does not lie with the people, the President said. Trusting a public service medium is not a mistake, but betraying that trust is a serious responsibility, he said.

The President pointed out that those who conceal or falsify information do not merely decide what appears in the evening news, but "create an artificially constructed reality on which millions base their decisions". A democratic state's role, he added, was not to decide for its citizens but to create the conditions for them to decide for themselves.

This required free access to facts, differing opinions, and all perspectives so that everyone could find their own way in the world, Baka said. He added that denying people the freedom to choose was to deprive them of part of their human dignity.

Meanwhile, the President said press freedom was not just the journalist's right to speak but also the citizen's right to knowledge, to have the information needed to form opinions and the opportunity to think differently. He cited an old legal principle: "Let the other side be heard as well."

This was important not only in law but also in public life, András Baka said. "In this simple sentence lies the recognition that part of another person's dignity is that we listen to them," he said, adding that "we should expect no more and no less from public service news: it must tell the truth and listen to the other side."

He added that propaganda was defined not by which political side it serves but by the fact that it serves politics at all. "The true measure of change, therefore, will not be whether we now hear different opinions but whether a public media emerges where no one can decide, based on political interests, what reality should be," he said.

He emphasized that a free public sphere must be defended "not only when it favors us but also when it is inconvenient". "The credibility of public media cannot be solemnly proclaimed today; it will be demonstrated by the news coverage in the coming weeks, months, and years," Baka said.

Real change, he said, would be evident when a journalist no longer hesitates to ask whether something is permissible to report. "If something is true, in the public interest, and honestly uncovered, then it is not only permissible, but also a duty," Baka said.

He also spoke about the free state not removing the burden of decision-making but providing the means to make decisions, and that public media cannot lie.

"The purpose of public media is simple: to create a public sphere that respects the freedom and judgement of citizens," the president said. "This is what I wish for the relaunched public media, and this is what I wish for all of us."