Call
for political balanceBy Balázs
Dóczy
ACTIVISTS and
supporters of new right-wing political
party Jobbik Magyarország
Mozgalom and "civic" organization
Honfoglalás 2000 Egyesület
gathered on Saturday outside state-run
Hungarian Television (MTV) in a protest
against the recent stoppage of a
program called Éjjeli
menedék+1.
Although the police refused to give
an estimate as to the number of people
present, the organizers said there were
thousands of protesters.
According to police reports, the
demonstration was free from violence,
finished peacefully, and no arrests
were made. Ervin Nagy, Jobbik's
Vice Chairman said the people had
convened to mourn the freedom of press
which he claimed to have been destroyed
by the current government coalition of
he Socialists (MSZP) and Free
Democrats.
Nagy asserted that the state-run
channel is no longer capable of
fulfilling its duty as a public
television.
Éjjeli
menedék+1 was the only
program catering for the interests of
right-wing audiences, Nagy pointed out,
and called for public television
capable of conveying national and
Christian values.
"We will make the will of the Pest
boys come true, and clean this house,
one where dictatorship of opinion still
lives on," said Tamás
Molnár, another Jobbik Vice
Chairman, in reference to protesters
who surrounded the same building 13
years ago in a bid to push for freedom
of the media.
Among the speakers were Katalin
Kondor, Chairwoman of Hungarian
Radio (MR) who said, "It is rather
unpleasant to become a national hero
without having done anything for it,"
in reference to recent press
allegations that she had acted as an
agent in the 1970s and 1980s.
"This
demonstration, along with all
similar ones, was organized for the
sake of free press which, according
to my view, has never faced such a
serious threat as it is facing
today," Kondor emphasized.
She called the present media
situation the "suppression of the
freedom of press under the disguise of
genuine democracy".
The
management of MTV took the program off
air on October 28
[2003]
because its previous edition featured
comments from rightwing British
historian David Irving
(right) who spoke at an earlier
rally in Budapest.
Among others, Irving said that
"anti-Jewish pogroms were a feature of
the first two days of the 1956
Hungarian Uprising".
MTV explained their decision by
saying that "some of the historian's
remarks offended the dignity of the
entire Hungarian nation and the memory
of the 1956 Revolution."
Jobbik released a statement the very
same day in which they protested
against the cancellation of the
program.
Fidesz chairman Viktor
Orbán also denounced MTV's
decision.
He expressed his concern over the
fact that this was not the first time
that programs representing "civic"
values had been attacked.
In response, Socialist MP
Zoltán Szabó said
the program was canceled because the
footage in question was presented
without comments, adding that Irving
has been banned in the past by several
European courts
[sic]
for his denial of
the Holocaust.
In a related event, former Fidesz
education minister József
Pálinkás has recently
spoken in favor of the political
division of state-run television -
including the establishment of two
information and cultural departments
catering for the different tastes of
left and right wing audiences - should
Fidesz win the next general
elections.
If this be rejected by leftwingers,
Fidesz would be "ready to go into war,"
which, in this case, would mean to set
up two entirely separate state-run
channels, an idea Fidesz has floated
before.
![[]](../../std/dings/list.gif){kind=small}
write to David
Irving