Funds related to Orban participated in the takeover of “Euronews”.

A controlling stake in the troubled media company “Euronews” was purchased by the Portugal-based investment fund “Alpac Capital” for approximately 170 million euros. The sale of the company was accepted by the French government.

At least a third of these funds came from sources linked to Orbán, Hungarian investigative journalism website Direkt36, French daily Le Monde and Portuguese weekly Expresso said Thursday evening.

Hungarian investment fund “Szechenyi Funds” allocated 45 million euros for the purchase of “Euronews”, according to a media report, citing internal documents. It suggests that there were political reasons for this decision.

In a slide outlining the Szechenyi Funds’ vision for Euronews, one of its goals was to “build partnerships with mainstream universities to mitigate left-wing ideology and bias/one-sidedness.”

Euronews said it “does not know the details of the controlling shareholders in the company” but that it “disputes and denies any idea or suggestion of editorial interference with its news mission”.

Euronews also announced that its Budapest bureau had continued to operate completely independently for the past two years.

A source quoted by “Direkt36” said that the order to finance these investments apparently came “from above”. The source said the people involved in those investments were instructed not to make anything public.