(No) Boundaries for Brainwashing? Informational Autocratization and its Cures in Serbia and Hungary

Given the increasingly intimate relationship between Hungary and Serbia, Orbán’s model can be increasingly attractive for Serbia on its own ambivalent path towards Euro-Atlantic integration. Despite the fact that Hungary, unlike Serbia, is a member of EU and NATO, media concentration and massive state-sponsored disinformation and conspiracy theorizing is on a less developed stage in the Vučić regime. At the same time, the Serbian president regards Orbán as a role model in many senses. Orbán’s role as a “teacher” of spin dictatorship can contribute to further deterioration of the quality and factuality of the information space in Serbia – if there are no efficient countermeasures from the EU and civil society actors.