Photos and names of Hungarian independent journalists described as 'fake news creators' to be displayed at Fidesz' meeting with supporters

"Top fake news creators" is one of the slogans written on top of a board that will be displayed at the upcoming meeting of the Digital Civic Circles of Hungary’s governing Fidesz party at Papp László Sports Arena this weekend in Budapest. As visible in a video posted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, journalists from independent news outlets, including Telex, are listed on this board with their names and photos displayed.

The video shows the preparations for the event. As is visible, the pro-government program, Patrióta will be broadcasting from the scene live, with several other pro-government outlets also represented with their own booth. The Hunor space program will also be there. The Digital Civil Circle for the Protection of Sovereignty will have a wheel of fortune at their booth, where participants will be able to spin a wheel featuring the names of Donald Trump, Ursula von der Leyen, Péter Magyar, János Bóka (Hungary's EU Affairs Minister) and Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, among others.

It is around the 14 second mark of the video, set to the score of the horror film series Saw, that the sign listing the journalists can be seen as it is being moved by an organizer in the arena. It shows the names and photos of employees of 444, Telex, Magyar Hang, 24.hu, Népszava, RTL, and Partizán. The quality of the video made it difficult to make out the names, but one of our readers sent us a higher-resolution photo of it, which can be seen at the top of the article.

The video may be viewed here.

It was in May that Viktor Orbán outlined that the "silver bullet" for the upcoming elections would be digital warriors, and two months later, at Tusványos, he announced the launch of the Digital Civic Circles (DPK). Then they launched the Hour of Warriors, where Balázs Németh interviews Fidesz politicians, and in early September, the Prime Minister also announced a direct chat channel.

We have written in detail about Fidesz’ plan to raise up an army of digital warriors in preparation for the 2026 elections, and we also took a closer look at why they resorted to this.