Orbán-Era Media Empire Begins to Crumble — TV2 Fires News Director, KESMA Executives Removed

By May 15, structural changes to Hungary's Orbán-era media landscape were accelerating beyond the government's own reform timetable. TV2, Hungary's most-watched commercial television channel, fired its longtime news director and pulled its flagship Tények news programme amid an editorial overhaul. Multiple KESMA-affiliated outlet executives were removed from leadership positions. The government formally halted the flow of state advertising — which had reached hundreds of millions of euros annually under Orbán — to KESMA-linked outlets pending a review of the competitive exemption that allowed the foundation's creation in 2018 without regulatory oversight. A new media law is being drafted to replace the Orbán-era National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) with a genuinely independent regulator. The Columbia Journalism Review and Al Jazeera both reported on the speed of the media restructuring, noting that independent outlets like Telex.hu, 444.hu, and HVG — which had survived under foreign and reader-funded models — stood to benefit from the rebalancing of the advertising market. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called the changes the most significant step for press freedom in Hungary since the KESMA consolidation in 2018.