The owner of Hungary's biggest opposition newspaper says it has suspended publication in a move that is sure to highlight concerns about democratic and free-speech backtracking in the EU-member country of 10 million people.
But the daily Nepszabadsag's Austrian-backed owners, Mediaworks, said on October 8 that the shuttering was a business decision taken to allow for "the formulation and realization of a new concept."
The opposition Socialists nevertheless called it a "black day for the press" and urged protesters to gather outside the paper's offices later in the day.
Nepszabadsag has frequently been critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's center-right government, which European leaders have also chided for perceived attacks on free media and increasingly assertive antimigrant policies emanating from Budapest.
A "senior Nepszabadsag editor" told the AFP news agency that journalists preparing stories for the October 10 edition were suddenly blocked from going to work and given letters of suspension.