Exposed: How the New Foreign-Funded Support Model Works in the “Dollar Media”

A Prague-based international progressive network has launched a new funding model to bankroll selected writers and articles in Hungary’s opposition-aligned media. These writings barely disguise serving the campaign goals of the opposition. One recent example, financed by the group Free Press for Eastern Europe (FPEE), appeared on the left-leaning news site Telex. The lengthy analysis claimed that Fidesz is trailing in opinion polls, while the opposition Tisza Party is “favored to win” in next April’s elections — a narrative echoing the messaging of left-wing political pundits. In this report, we expose how the Czech-based NGO operates and how it has quietly funneled funds into Hungary’s left-wing press for years.

Unlike previous models of foreign support, this Prague-based network doesn’t fund entire media outlets — it funds individual journalists to write specific stories.

The latest example of this new approach is the extensive Telex article published on November 7, which analyzed Fidesz’s campaign strategy and electoral prospects.

The piece, in English translation titled “Fidesz’s Main Message: Don’t Get Your Hopes Up,” seeks to reinforce a familiar opposition narrative — that the governing party has lost momentum against the Tisza Party and is now focused not on persuading undecided voters, but on discouraging them from turning out in next year’s election.

At the bottom of the lengthy piece, a note reads: “This article was produced with the support of FPEE Science+.”

Curious about who would pay for a story so obviously written to boost the opposition’s sense of momentum, we looked into the organization named.

According to its website, Science+ describes itself as a “cross-border network” fighting disinformation “where it does the most damage — at the heart of democratic trust.”

The organization claims that misinformation and polarization threaten not only the media environment but democracy itself. Its platform connects over 50 media outlets, fact-checkers, and research groups across Central and Eastern Europe, promising to deliver “trustworthy journalism even to the most skeptical audiences.”

The Science+ project is run by Free Press for Eastern Europe (FPEE), a Prague-based international nonprofit 

that operates in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and the Baltic states.

The group invites journalists, analysts, fact-checkers, and donors to participate.

According to its own website, FPEE was registered in April 2016 in Prague and receives funding from “numerous institutional and private donors,” as well as from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Transition Promotion Program. Its stated mission is to support “independent media and journalism” in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. Its staff includes media professionals from eight countries who collectively speak more than ten languages. FPEE also describes itself as a sister organization of the Netherlands-based Free Press Unlimited (FPU), an NGO active in global media freedom advocacy. Free Press Unlimited (FPU) works with over 300 media partners worldwide, providing grants, training, and “emergency assistance” to journalists.

 According to their website, Free Press Unlimited's (FPU) mission is to make independent news and information available to everyone. FPU supports journalists and media professionals worldwide through advocacy, emergency assistance, advice, training, capacity building, and awareness raising. 

However, the funding of individual writers and articles through Science+ lacks transparency — the identities of its donors remain shrouded in what critics call “charitable obscurity.”

It’s worth recalling that Hungary’s so-called “rolling dollars” scandal — referring to the flow of foreign money into the country’s left-wing political and media circles — revealed similar funding patterns in the past — ones that recipient outlets attempted to debunk, without much success.

In March of this year, the outlet Tenyellenor published an analysis documenting the extent of foreign financing at several opposition-linked media platforms, including 444.hu and Telex. According to Telex’s publisher, Van Masik Kft., foreign sources — including the Prague-based FPEE — had already begun funding the site by 2022, contributing roughly ten million forints across multiple payments. FPEE also appeared among the listed revenue sources for Magyar Jeti Zrt., the publisher of 444.hu.

Under the new funding model, however, there is even less transparency, making tracing the money even harder. Instead of appearing in company reports, the funds go directly toward specific articles — making oversight nearly impossible.

The Telex article cited above is a textbook case of how this new “support model” works: foreign-funded content written with clear campaign intent, masquerading as independent analysis. Far from combating disinformation or political polarization — as FPEE’s mission claims — the article serves precisely the opposite goal: to shape public perception in favor of Hungary’s opposition ahead of next year’s elections.