Heinrich Pecina

In 2014, Austrian investor Heinrich Pecina bought the Hungarian newspapers Ringier and Axel Springer were forced to divest by the competition authority - including Népszabadság, Világgazdaság and Nemzeti Sport - and founded the Mediaworks publishing group. Under his leadership, Mediaworks abruptly shut down Népszabadság, then Hungary's most-read opposition-leaning daily, in 2016. Pecina went on to acquire regional papers from Funke Mediengruppe and subordinated their editorial lines entirely to publisher interests, eliminating journalistic independence. In 2017 he sold Mediaworks into Lőrinc Mészáros's business empire, and the company became the largest constituent of the pro-government KESMA media conglomerate formed in 2018. Analysts, including Visegrad Insight, have described Pecina as having served for years as an unofficial proxy for Viktor Orbán in dismantling independent Hungarian media.