Disinformation Resilience Index 2021

Together with its partner organizations, Political Capital took part in the Disinformation Resilience Index 2021 project, a landmark analyzing resilience against disinformation campaigns in the Visegrád Group and the Eastern Partnership region. Headed by the Eurasian States in Transition Research Center (EAST Center), a Warsaw-based think tank, the report focuses on pro-Kremlin and pro-Beijing disinformation campaigns, Russian and Chinese aspirations in the CEE region, and the vulnerability of V4 and EaP countries towards foreign-grown disinformation. The report is available in English by clicking here.

Political Capital wrote the chapter on Hungary.

The Hungarian chapter examines the country's vulnerability to pro-Chinese and pro-­Russian disinformation, the activities and features of pro-Eastern disinformation actors in the country, as well as the broader context in political, economic, social, and media perspectives. While Hungary is a NATO and EU member state, the country maintains political and economic proximity to Moscow and Beijing at a uniquely high level, compared to other EU states. Simultaneously, Hungary has not only regressed democratically under the leadership of prime minister Viktor Orbán, but has also seen a deterioration in media freedom, opening new opportunities for the spread of hostile, foreign disinformation. While fringe social groups and news media organizations sympathetic to eastern autocracies exist, their role is being increasingly overtaken by a combination of pro-government media outlets and social media pages as well as the government-controlled public media, all of which advance pro-Kremlin and pro-Beijing narratives.

The report was generously supported by the International Visegrád Fund and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.