Top EU court blasts Hungary for unlawfully silencing independent radio station

(CN) — Hungary broke European Union law when it cited minor infractions as justification for kicking a Budapest radio station critical of the government off the air in 2021, the bloc's high court ruled Thursday.

The European Court of Justice said Hungarian regulators were far too heavy handed and violated freedom of expression rights when they refused to renew a broadcast license for Klubrádió in 2020. The station was a commercial news and talk radio station known for airing opposition voices, many of them on the liberal side of the political spectrum.

In its ruling, the court said a media law that allowed Hungary to yank the license away from Klubrádió for minor problems was too severe. It found Hungary's law was at “odds with the principle of proportionality” and the action taken against Klubrádió was “disproportionate” because it was based on “minor irregularities in the programming schedule.”

Klubrádió's case became a prime example of what critics said was a crackdown on opposition media by far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, one of Europe's most controversial figures with his brand of “illiberal democracy.” Orbán is in a tough reelection fight with parliamentary elections set for April 12.

“This is a very important ruling and a real milestone,” said Bea Bodrogi, a Hungarian media law expert and expert adviser to the Rule of Law Lab at New York University School of Law.

The court made it clear that governments “cannot use formal regulatory arguments to push critical media out of the broadcast market,” she said in an email.

Therefore, in awarding radio frequencies, she said regulators must view core EU principles such as proportionality, transparency and non-discrimination not just as “technical rules, but safeguards for media pluralism.”

In 2020, Hungary's Media Council, a media regulatory body, rejected Klubrádió's request to renew its license for five years. The station previously was granted a seven-year license in 2014. It began airing in 1999.

The Media Council faulted Klubrádió for twice failing to supply monthly data on broadcasting quotas and it cited concerns about the station's finances. In Hungary, as happens across the EU, radio stations must air a minimum number of works made both in Europe and domestically, so-called quotas. Klubrádió paid fines for those infractions, but it was nonetheless kicked off the air.

At the time, the decision to boot Klubrádió was seen as another attack by the Orbán government on free speech and democratic principles. By 2020, numerous media watchdogs were warning that Orbán had consolidated his political control since taking office in 2010 in part by cracking down on critical media.

The Media Council is supposed to be independent, but its members are picked through parliamentary processes and critics said the body was stacked with Orbán loyalists.

In 2021, the European Commission, the EU's executive body with the job of enforcing the bloc's laws, took up Klubrádió's case and filed a complaint with the Court of Justice. The commission argued Hungary unlawfully kicked the station off the air on “highly questionable grounds.”

EU advocate general Athanasios Rantos, adviser to the court, agreed in April 2025 with the European Commission's claim that the radio station was wrongly prevented from providing its services.

After losing its radio license, Klubrádió began broadcasting over the internet, which it continues to do.

Bodrogi said Klubrádió “has been one of the few broadcast outlets consistently critical of the government.”

“It provided a platform for opposition politicians, independent experts and civil society actors," she said. "Before losing its frequency, it had meaningful reach in the Hungarian radio market. In a landscape where most nationwide radio frequencies are held by pro-government operators, that watchdog role was significant.”

On Thursday, Klubrádió welcomed the ruling but doubted it would be given back a radio frequency anytime soon. The station ran on the 92.9 MHz frequency.

György Magyar, Klubrádió's lawyer, said the station may seek to obtain a radio frequency through a new administrative procedure or sue for damages, the station said in a statement.

To comply with the ruling, Bodrogi said Hungarian lawmakers will need to amend the country's media laws to ensure that future licensing decisions abide by the "principles of proportionality, transparency and non-discrimination. But she said the decision did not mean that Klubrádió was automatically entitled to get its radio frequency back.

Klubrádió and the Media Council did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau