Community Radio in Hungary and Its Place in the Society, Politics, and Education

Abstract

This article examines the community radio scene in Hungary, focusing on two stations in Budapest: Tilos Radio and EPER Radio. The authors explore the unique characteristics and principles of community radio in Hungary through desk research and interviews with key players in the community radio movement conducted in October 2022. They highlight how these two stations, while differing in their specific forms of community broadcasting, share a commonality of being independent and offering an alternative to mainstream and public radio programming. Sustainability was identified as a significant challenge facing community radio stations in Hungary, primarily because of unfriendly media policy promoting voices supporting the government. The article also provides characteristics of the community radio concept and the historical context of community radio in Hungary, noting that this country was the first in Central and Eastern Europe to incorporate the third broadcasting sector into media law.

Keywords

• hungary
• community radio
• media in hungary
• tilos radio
• eper radio
• media in cee