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.
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write to David Irving