Reporter: Hungary - Eurosceptic or europhile?
944 views · Published 30 October 2012 · 5:50 · Indexed 6 November 2026
Channel: European Parliament · 2012 · News & Politics
In Hungary protests erupted in January. At one EU flags were waved high, at another EU flags were burned. The media says a battle is brewing between Budapest and Brussels. We went to Budapest to see what the real story is. 1,300km away from Brussels, in Budapest, the temperature was -5, but the political temperature towards the EU varied. I hope it means democratic principles in Hungary will be preserved. But it seems they are not very capable of preventing someone aiming to dismantle them. I don't think anybody has any idea of what is going on in the European Parliament, but I think they feel that we, Hungary, and other small countries are puppets and then someone will dictate from above and it must be done like that. There is always a need for a 'Big Brother', mostly in situations where we can integrate politically, ideologically and economically. The Brussels media have been very active following heated exchanges about Hungary, since its EU Presidency last year. When you say, 'Before we were dictated to by Moscow, now it's Brussels', you mean it. You've proven to be the secret weapon of the Eurosceptic movement. Why is Europe badly received in their country? Because there are politicians who speak in one way here, and in another in their country. That's what's damaging Europe. More recently at a hearing in Brussels, EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Hungarian Deputy PM Tibor Navracsics didn't always see eye to eye. The editor of centre-right blog Mandiner thinks the situation is being exaggerated. There were many funny things and all the posters: 'The Situation in Hungary' next to 'The Mafias of Europe' and such things. Like many EU countries, the Hungarian media is divided along left-right lines. A new media law was approved by the 2/3 majority Fidesz government. Some argue it favours the ruling party, which means reporting on Brussels could become distorted. There is no public discourse and one can see that, unfortunately, it might have been the government's goal. In that system, the whole system is messed up. I'm not using the f-word, but I could use it. January 13 was the first day journalists from Index could enter Parliament after being banned. The hunger march also reached the capital that day. Journalists were among the protestors. It's still a threat for most journalists, they're promoting self-censorship. It's better not to say something against the government as you'll pay for it: you can lose your job, and be in a situation where you never find a job while this government is in place. Most admit the media laws are not perfect. However, at the right-wing paper Magyar Hírlap, one journalist wasn't surprised I had spoken with the former MTV editor. Well, who else? To say that in Hungary journalists are threatened and because of this portray Viktor Orbán in a Nazi uniform on Le Monde's front page is, if I'm in a good mood, an exaggeration, but if I'm in a bad mood it's a lie. At left-wing Népszava, the media law changes seem not to have affected everyone's work. I don't feel that I ought to be afraid because of my writing. Instead, I feel that the behaviour of those writing comments has changed, because anybody could write anything on our site before - I work for the online version of the paper. But now the comments are checked much more vigorously than before and obviously I feel a change in the sense that the public service media has shifted towards the governing party and the information has become much more unbalanced. With a population of 10 million, market forces aren't strong enough to ensure media ownership is diverse. Hungary has always struggled with state intervention in the media. For two decades, the Hungarian public have been used to the fact that there is the leftist media and the rightist media. The leftist part only writes good things about leftist political parties and the rightist part about the rightist parties. This must be changed. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that independent media barely exists today in Hungary. Whilst in Budapest, Orwellian references littered people's speech. But Orwell may not have been proud of the legacy of 'Big Brother'. Don't we watch the same rubbish? If in 100 years somebody would like to have an overview of this age and would look at the Big Brother shows in the archives, no matter whether he's Portuguese, Hungarian or Russian, he will think that at the beginning of the 21st century in Europe people were crazy and he will be damned right. The new media law aimed to clean up the 'depraved' Big Brother style programmes, but it raises fears about state control of the media. Orwell's writings are a reminder of what absolute power entails. When reporting battles with the EU, media freedom is crucial for journalists to remain critical of any institution whether based in Brussels or Budapest. EuroparlTV video ID: b68b61b5-dbcc-4dbf-8164-a00500aaebe3
