- Madrid's 'many styles' key to unbeaten streak: Ancelotti
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen to undergo knee operation
- French mass rape trial moves on to new defendants
- Israel warns Lebanese as intense strikes target Hezbollah
- UK's Labour looks to be more cheerful despite gifts and welfare row
- Eurozone business activity slumps after Olympics boost
- Russia, Ukraine cross swords in sea dispute court battle
- Albania plans Sufi Muslim microstate within its borders
- EU launches WTO challenge against China dairy probe
- Murdoch's REA ups offer for property website Rightmove
- India's one-horned rhino numbers charging ahead, govt says
- Rescuers comb muddy riverbanks after Japan floods kill seven
- Asian stocks boosted by US rate cut, China stimulus hope
- Sri Lanka's new leader says no magic solution to crisis
- Israel warns Lebanese as wave of strikes hits Hezbollah
- New Socceroos coach Popovic confident he can rescue World Cup campaign
- 'Put Austrians first': On a pub crawl with far-right voters
- Trial begins in Italy student murder case that opened eyes to femicide
- Family of murdered Sri Lanka editor seek justice from new president
- Austria's far right woos anti-vaxxers with fund for vaccine 'victims'
- Long wait for justice in India's backlogged courts
- Rohingya refugees detail worsening violence in Myanmar
- Rescuers comb muddy riverbanks after Japan floods kill six
- Sri Lankan leftist leader sworn in after landslide election win
- Indonesia, NZ deny Papua rebel claim 'bribe' paid for pilot release
- Swearing, shoeys and swift legs: Singapore GP talking points
- South Korea warns of 'decisive' action against trash balloons
- Football Australia names Tony Popovic as Socceroos coach
- Japan quake, flood victim attempts fresh start with wife's memory
- Japan quake, flood victim attemps fresh start with wife's memory
- Asian markets extend gains as focus turns to US inflation
- Six dead after floods in central Japan: media
- Australian golf prodigy suffers career-threatening eye injury
- Gaza hospital a symbol of the ruin of war
- October 7: how Israel's deadliest day unfolded
- Bibles, sneakers, silver coins: Trump's merch for sale
- Met Opera opens season with tech-heavy 'Grounded'
- Colombia's Inirida flower: from 'weed' to emblem for UN meeting
- Colombia rebel group imposes control in restive coca zone
- Rams fight back to upset 49ers, Cowboys lose again
- Sri Lankan leftist leader to take office after landslide election win
- 300-kilo WWI bomb removed in Belgrade
- Zelensky in US to explain war plan to Biden, Harris, Trump
- 'Atrocious' Sudan war pushing refugees further afield: UNHCR chief
- 'Convergence' growing on global plastics treaty: UN environment chief
- MLB White Sox fall to Padres to match one-season loss mark
- All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown
- Barnier promises compromise from France's embattled new govt
- Zelensky arrives in US to explain war plan to Biden
- Barca rout Villarreal but Ter Stegen hurt, Atletico draw at Rayo
The Hungarian internet TV fighting 'propaganda'
Their studio is makeshift and their funds are largely crowd-sourced, yet Hungary's top YouTube politics channel is one of the few voices left in the country critical of the government.
Partizan has become essential viewing for hundreds of thousands of Hungarians ahead of Sunday's general elections in which nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces his tightest fight for political survival in years.
Founder and host Marton Gulyas, who produces at least one discussion, debate show or in-depth interview a day, says the purpose is to "liberate the political imagination of the people".
"Public media here has no ambition of creating public service content, only spreading government propaganda," Gulyas, a bearded and lanky 35-year-old, told AFP.
"It doesn't work for the people as it should, instead it destroys and intoxicates public discourse and debate," he said.
Partizan's studio is in a dilapidated, red-brick warehouse on the outskirts of Budapest. The channel commands a fraction of the roughly 350-million-euro taxpayer-funded budget lavished annually on Hungary's public broadcaster MTVA.
MTVA, who enjoys a state-of-the-art headquarters just a kilometre (mile) from Partizan's -- faithfully toes the government line of the day.
News items typically attack the EU, migration, or the opposition, and currently chime with Orban's neutral approach to the Russian invasion.
The central European country now ranks in 92nd position -- the second lowest in the EU -- in the annual press freedom index of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
- Micro-donations -
Independent news outlets have largely been squeezed out -- having had their licences revoked or editors replaced with those who support the government line.
During the election campaign, MTVA's news television channel M1 and radio stations have bombarded viewers with Orban-friendly messaging.
M1 replayed Orban's March 15 national day address nine times the following day.
The same morning Orban's challenger, provincial mayor Peter Marki-Zay, was given just five minutes to outline his election manifesto on the channel, albeit the first time an opposition politician was given a platform to speak on M1 in four years.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs denies public media coverage is slanted in favour of Orban's ruling Fidesz party.
"If you listen to the morning news on the radio, it is clear that there is a variety of views and opinions," he told AFP.
Partizan now boasts over 270,000 subscribers, a number that Gulyas says is dynamically growing and the channel is funded by thousands of micro-donations.
"If you like what we do, please consider a donation," said the host as he signed off an election debate show with a trademark point at the camera.
Formerly a theatre group manager, then a prominent activist who was arrested five years ago for throwing paint at the presidential palace, Gulyas set up Partizan in 2018.
- No 'traitor' -
A few government-linked figures do dare face a grilling on Partizan but invitations to Orban -- who has also refused to debate challenger Marki-Zay -- cabinet ministers, and Fidesz politicians go unanswered.
"I like to reach outside my bubble," said Gulyas, but he "acknowledges" that going on his show is risky for politicians.
A wayward comment by Marki-Zay about the Ukraine war during a Partizan interview was seized on by the Orban campaign.
"Asking fair and square questions can weaken not empower the opposition's position, but I can't make interviews in any other way," said Gulyas.
Agnes Urban, a media expert with the Mertek Media Monitor watchdog, says Partizan is "vulnerable as it could be switched off for any reason" by internet giants.
“It is dependent on the decisions of major digital platforms, if for example YouTube shut down, or Facebook decided some of its content is unsuitable or unlawful, or indeed if the EU imposes strict regulations on digital platforms in the future, in these cases Partizan cannot do anything,” said Urban.
A former employee at the public broadcaster between 2015 and 2019, Andras Rostovanyi, 31, leaked a hidden recording of an editorial meeting that revealed top managers instructing staff to cover politically sensitive topics with a pro-government slant.
"Some of my colleagues might consider me a traitor but I don't believe I am," the former foreign desk journalist told AFP.
"In fact, my former bosses are the ones, who betrayed public service. I have done more public service than them, just by revealing this," he said.
M.Odermatt--BTB