BUDAPEST: US government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty relaunched a Hungarian-language service Tuesday for the first time in 27 years citing a "steep decline in media freedom" in Hungary.

RFE/RL operated a Munich-based Hungarian-language radio service from the beginning of Hungary's four-decade-long communist period in 1949 until 1993. The relaunch of a Hungarian service was "in response to the dramatic constriction of the country's media landscape" said RFE/RL on its website.

Citing the EU country's 16-point-drop to 89th place in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders' 2020 World Press Freedom Index, it said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had taken control of public media and most of private media "either directly or indirectly".