US envoy criticizes Hungary for fostering atmosphere of fear

The US ambassador to Hungary, a frequent critic of the ruling party, on Wednesday accused it of creating a climate of fear through its control of the media in the central European nation.

Since nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's return to power in 2010, many independent press outlets in Hungary have either gone out of business or been bought by his allies and turned into supporters of the ruling Fidesz party, while public media has been forced to toe the government line.

Relations between the United States and Hungary have been frosty over the past several years, with Washington criticising Budapest over democratic backsliding.

The US envoy to the country, David Pressman has frequently slammed the Hungarian government over restricting LGBTQ rights.

On Wednesday, he told a conference organised in part by the opposition-led Budapest municipality that "the governing party's control of the media and its attacks on civil society have created an atmosphere of fear".

He accused Fidesz of targeting those who speak up with intense smear campaigns, which "render victims professionally radioactive, socially untouchable, and even commercially unemployable."

He mentioned the case of two judges, who had met with him and then were hit with an almost three-month-long "vitriolic" smear campaign and branded as "traitors".

"Every judge in Hungary understood the lesson: even apolitical criticism from within the system was an unacceptable betrayal and that there would be consequences," he said.

Pressman also called out Hungary -- whose leader frequently questions NATO and EU decisions -- for criticising "NATO from within the comfort of the NATO security umbrella" and the "EU under subsidy of the EU's economic umbrella".

Orban enjoyed warm relations with former US president Donald Trump, "his good friend" whom he has twice visited this year, and has often expressed his hope that Trump would win the upcoming US presidential election.