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Hungary Lifts Ban on Ukrainian Media to Rebuild Bilateral Relations

Hungarian Minister of Social Relations and Culture Zoltán Tarr announced that Budapest is lifting the ban on Ukrainian media distribution in Hungary. The restrictions, originally implemented in 2025 by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, were reversed to ensure the Ukrainian minority and refugees have acce

Kyiv Post

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2026年6月20日

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The Hungarian government has officially lifted restrictions on the distribution of Ukrainian media within the country, reversing a policy enacted by the previous administration.

Zoltán Tarr, Hungary’s minister of social relations and culture, announced the decision on Friday, June 19, on Facebook.

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He stated the move is intended to ensure that the Ukrainian community and refugees residing in Hungary have reliable access to information in their native language, while also serving as a step toward normalizing bilateral relations between Budapest and Kyiv.

Reversing the 2025 ban

According to Tarr, the media restrictions were voluntarily implemented in 2025 by former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party. At the time, the Fidesz government cited Ukraine’s actions against specific Hungarian newspapers – which Kyiv accused of violating journalistic standards and spreading Russian state narratives – as the basis for the ban.

Tarr rejected the previous administration’s rationale. “One cannot confuse media spreading Russian propaganda with genuine, independent press, neither in Hungary nor internationally,” the minister stated.

Tarr argued that the former government used the media ban to intentionally damage diplomatic ties. “The ousted government constantly worked on digging trenches, and blocking these publications had no other goal,” he said. “Our task is to build good-neighborly relations, which will help improve the situation of Hungarians abroad – this is a common national cause.”

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The decision to lift the ban was coordinated with Liliana Grexa, a representative of the Ukrainian national minority in Hungary, who emphasized the practical necessity of providing refugees with access to current events regarding Ukraine.

The restoration of media access is the latest in a series of steps taken by Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s new administration to resolve longstanding disputes with Ukraine. Tarr noted that the current government has managed to negotiate more progress on these issues in a matter of weeks than the previous government achieved over its tenure.

The ‘gold convoy’ investigation

Earlier in the week, Magyar ordered an immediate internal investigation involving the National Tax and Customs Administration and the Counter Terrorism Centre regarding the “Ukrainian gold convoy” incident.

In March, Hungarian authorities detained two armored vehicles belonging to Ukraine’s state-owned Oschadbank, which were transporting $40 million, €35 million, and 9 kilograms of bank gold from Vienna to Kyiv. Hungarian officials initially launched a money-laundering investigation and issued deportation orders for the bank personnel.

The claims were subsequently withdrawn in May, and the assets were returned to Ukraine. Magyar has now directed the Prosecutor General to address the handling of the case without delay.

Minority rights agreement

These developments follow a formalized agreement reached on June 12 regarding the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority in western Ukraine.

Kyiv issued a formal diplomatic note committing to the EU Minority Action Plan, which includes restoring native language schooling and permitting the use of Hungarian national symbols for the approximately 100,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the Transcarpathia region.

In response to the formalized protections, Hungary lifted its veto threat, allowing the EU to officially open the first cluster of accession negotiations with Ukraine on June 15.