Trump has praised the leaders of many of these nations, especially Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán. Those angles include attacking journalists, discrediting their reporting, applying pressure on media owners to induce self-censorship, launching legal challenges, and leveraging wealthy allies to buy up media outlets to turn them into government mouthpieces. Those outlets were then centralized into the powerful media conglomerate, the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA). That hub now controls roughly 500 outlets, Wójcik said, “consolidating the majority of pro-government media under a single entity.”The few remaining independent media outlets that continue to operate in the country “face challenges, including legal obstacles and broadcast license denials,” Wójcik said. Kamenchuk also expressed optimism that the “levers and limits” on the executive branch enshrined in US law will work to protect the free press.

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Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Sharon Moshavi, “ It’s, ’, Viktor Orbán, “, Moshavi, ” Moshavi, Olga Kamenchuk, Kamala Harris, Harris, ” Kamenchuk, ” Anne Applebaum, ” Applebaum, who’s, Orbán’s, Anna Wójcik, Orbán, Wójcik, ” Wójcik, Mikhail Zygar, Der Spiegel, Vladimir Putin, ” “ Putin, ”, Putin, A.G . Sulzberger, ” Sulzberger, Applebaum, it’s, Kamenchuk Organizations: New, New York CNN, International Center for Journalists, Northwestern University, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Kozminski University, “, Central European Press and Media Foundation, “ Journalists, CBS, New York Times Locations: New York, Europe, United States, Russia, Hungary, India, Poland, Washington, authoritarians, Russian