Viktor Orban: Hungary’s Disease Dictator

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The deadly consequences of such an approach are well known from Wuhan, China, where the authorities initially suppressed information about the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.

Orban's enabling act neutralises the few remaining channels of democratic accountability left in Hungary. It will bring about an extreme centralisation of control over the flow of information about the pandemic and its management.

And Orban, in power since 2010, desperately needs to control the pandemic narrative, given his governments' severe underinvestment in the country's health-care system over the last decade.

The new law gives him that power. For example, it makes spreading "false" information about the virus punishable by up to five years in prison — a real sword hanging over the head of doctors and journalists alike.

The justification contained in the relevant provision, together with the punishment, is nearly indistinguishable from a similar measure in Saudi Arabia. In effect, the enabling act minimises the remaining room for Hungary's independent media.

The Orban government's draconian measures in this regard are exceptional among European Union member states. Other EU countries generally are fighting fake news and misinformation about COVID-19 through soft means, such as promoting links to official information on the government's or the World Health Organization's websites, or working with fact-checkers.

That approach is working: the countries that have best managed the pandemic so far are those where information continues...