# KESMA The Central European Press and Media Foundation (Közép-Európai Sajtó és Média Alapítvány), formed September 2018, is the vehicle through which [[Fidesz]]-aligned owners consolidated Hungarian media under one pro-government umbrella. On 28 November 2018, the owners of **476 media outlets** — newspapers, TV channels (including HírTV), radio stations, and online portals — donated them to KESMA simultaneously and without payment. A government decree declared the merger to be of "national strategic importance in the public interest," exempting it from competition-authority and media-council scrutiny. KESMA is the centerpiece of the media-capture limb of the [[Orbán Kleptocracy]]: rather than nationalizing the press, the state ensured that allies owned it and coordinated its output, collapsing Hungary's press-freedom ranking. ## Related - [[Fidesz]] - [[Viktor Orbán]] - [[Orbán Kleptocracy]]