''Hungarian Spectrum'' was a daily blog from 2007 to 2021, covering current political and social developments in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Created in 2007 by historian Eva S. Balogh, it came to an end with her death, on November 30, 2021.

History

''Hungarian Spectrum'' was published daily, seven days a week, starting June 27, 2007. It has been permanently archived in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

as of 2013 where it remains available online, as well as in the

Blinken Open Society Archives The Blinken OSA Archivum (abbreviated as the 'Archivum'') is a dynamic archival institution that aims to explore new ways of assessing, contextualizing, presenting, and making use of archival documents both in a professional and a consciously act ...

. Balogh, who specialized in interwar Hungarian history, researched and wrote most of the articles. Based on primary sources in Hungarian, German and English, the articles analyzed current developments in Hungary for the nonspecialist reader from a historian's perspective. The blog also occasionally included articles written by guest scholars such as Kim Lane Scheppele, Johanna Laakso, Charles Gati and Randolph L. Braham. ''Hungarian Spectrum'' was supported by voluntary donations from its readers. Businessman

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

, winner of the '' Ridenhour Prize for Courage'' in April 2019, donated his prize money to ''Hungarian Spectrum'', describing it as a site that "renders an important service by exposing to the world what Prime Minister Orban is telling his own people." Following the death of Balogh, ''Hungarian Spectrum'' ceased publications.

Political orientation

Eva S. Balogh often wrote entries highly critical of the current government in power in Hungary, led by

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

. She was described by Ference Kumin as having had close ties with the opposition to the government. Balogh was a regular guest on ATV television programmes and published opinion pieces in ''

Népszava ''Népszava'' (, meaning "People's Voice" in English) is a social-democratic Hungarian language newspaper published in Hungary. History and profile ''Népszava'' is Hungary's eldest continuous print publication and as of October 2019 the last ...

'', a social-democratic newspaper. In November 2009, she gave a lecture for

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officials at

Langley, Virginia Langley is an unincorporated community in the census-designated place of McLean in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The name "Langley" often occurs as a metonym for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), whose headquarters, the George ...

, where she characterized the imminent right-wing

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal. Originally formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as ...

victory in the

2010 Hungarian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 11 and 25 April 2010 to elect the members of the National Assembly. They were the sixth free elections since the end of the communist era. 386 Members of Parliament (MPs) were elected in a combine ...

as a possible

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

breakthrough.

References

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External links

''Hungarian Spectrum''
Defunct websites European political websites Hungarian websites Political mass media in Hungary Internet properties established in 2007 Internet properties disestablished in 2021 2007 establishments in Hungary 2021 disestablishments in Hungary Political blogs

History

Political orientation

See also

References

External links