In our chaotically changing world, there is a great need for fair public discourse and objective information, which in autocratic regimes only an independent press is able and willing to provide. However, this work costs money, while a significant part of the population is used to the fact that news is available “for free”. However, we know from advertising theory that

„If you are not paying for a product, you are the product” (Refinement of Richard Serra’s quote from a 1973 documentary on TV commercials)

In other words, the state propaganda and party press, mocked as public service, purchases the reader’s vote for the government.

The independent press cannot count on state or party support in either Serbia or Hungary, since those governments use taxpayers’ money exclusively for self-glorification and enemy-fabrication.

The media family of the Press Freedom Foundation – which includes Szabad Magyar Szó, Családi Kör, Slobodna reč, Baba-Mama, podcasts and YouTube videos, and the academic journal Politikon – must therefore sustain itself with the help of its Readers and such Supporters who do not demand any political commitment or compensation in return.

What does our Foundation’s revenue consist of?

  • Regular donations of the two founders and from the support of generous individuals.
  • From the sale price of the weekly magazine Családi Kör and from the subscription to Szabad Magyar Szó PLUSZ.
  • According to the president of the Vojvodina Hungarian Association, Szabad Magyar Szó, the most widely read Hungarian-language news site in Serbia, „does not exist,” and the Hungarian National Council and its Media Committee – let us add: in a distinguishing manner – refuse to give a favorable opinion to our applications for official Serbian and Vojvodinian grants. Nevertheless, we have won minimal amounts in republican and provincial tenders.
  • We have never received any support from Hungarian institutions, political bodies, or organizations. (Millions of euros from Budapest only go to their crony media.)
  • The above sources would not be sufficient to maintain our publishing activities. Therefore, we have applied to numerous foreign foundations, of which the following have supported us thus far:
    • Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN)
    • British Council (BC)
    • European Commission (EC)
    • European Endowment for Democracy (EED)
    • International Press Institute (IPI)
    • National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – an American bipartisan institution, maintained not by the executive branch, but by Congress. As is known, the Hungarian party-state lies about the institution of the NATO-ally USA support as a “deep state” subversive activity and politically stigmatizes, and is now even preparing to legally persecute, NED beneficiaries.
    • Open Society Foundations – offered minimal assistance only once to alleviate problems caused by the COVID pandemic. It did not ask for, or received, any compensation or influencer services in return.
    • Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

According to the Serbian and Hungarian governments and their propaganda media, foreign support is considered hostile intervention, even “agent work,” while it is precisely they who misuse taxpayers’ money to finance party propaganda and even support the campaigns of their foreign comrades; in other words, it is they who interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

That is why the press independent of state and political parties needs international support from organizations that do not expect any political compensation, only honesty and authentic information for the democratic public. The use of their support is monitored not based on the worldview of our journalists, but on our level of reader visits and detailed accounting down to the last penny (and euros and dollar cents, Swiss francs).

We would like to emphasize once again that the editorial staff of Szabad Magyar Szó and Családi Kör, as well as all our other publications, bear sole responsibility to the Publisher, the Press Freedom Foundation, and cannot be purchased, hired, or used by anyone.