“They are trying to execute Népszava. We are fighting for our existence,” the editors turned to their readers in a dramatic text published on their website nepszava.hu.
The editors noted that in the 153-year history of the newspaper, it has already happened that the newspaper was not published for some time. “Nevertheless, the Népszava newspaper has survived world wars, revolutions, crises, censorship, bans, changes in political regimes and even murders,” the editors remind.
The editorial board admits that the newspaper has accumulated significant debts towards the printer and the distribution company. “Both are owned by Mediaworks, with whom we negotiated debt repayment. However, after the elections, the company changed its tone and set an unfulfillable ultimatum for immediate debt repayment. On Thursday, Mediaworks terminated the contract with immediate effect, and the Friday issue of our newspaper will not be published,” stated the editorial board.
The editors remind that Mediaworks still has a monopoly in the field of printing and distribution. The Népszava newspaper, which was critical of Orbán’s government, did not receive advertising assignments from state-owned enterprises last year, and subscription revenues did not cover costs. Despite the financial difficulties, the paper refused to publish Orbán’s campaigns directed, for example, against the American billionaire of Hungarian origin George Soros, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ursula von der Leyen or the current Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
End of cooperation due to debts
The company Mediaworks stated in the case that it had terminated more than ten years of printing and distribution cooperation with Népszava due to non-fulfillment of payment obligations by the publisher of the newspaper. The debts should reach several million forints. “In January, we agreed on debt restructuring, but the publisher Népszava did not comply with the agreement and the debt continued to grow,” Mediaworks stated.
“Our decisions (do not print or distribute the Népszava newspaper, editor’s note) is exclusively of an economic nature. We apply the same business and financial principles to all our partners,” the company added, stating that if the publisher of the Népszava newspaper pays off the debts, the company is ready to continue printing and distributing the newspaper under the new contract, which assumes advance payments.
