The report below shows how public media functions in today's Hungary: It presents how and in what form it reported last Thursday's plenary sitting in the European Parliament. The style and the tone used concerning Daniel Cohn-Bendit is quite unprecedented.

- unofficial translation -
Hungarian State Television, news programme of 19:30; 11 March 2011

Presenter: According to Jonathan Todd, spokesperson of the European Commission, Brussels has managed to push for quite considerable changes in the Hungarian media law. Yesterday the European Parliament condemned the law in a resolution. According to Fidesz MEP József Szájer, the Parliament discredited himself by adopting the text, considering that the Hungarian Parliament has already amended the law. I have to add that in our forthcoming report, there may texts capable of upsetting minors.

Reporter: Neelie Kroes, Media Commissioner of the European Commission welcomed on Monday that the Hungarian National Assembly had, taking into consideration the recommendations of the Commission, amended the media law. The European Parliament, however, had a different opinion on Thursday already. Despite the warning of the president of the People's Party's group, Josehp Daul, about Hungary having already amended the law, the Parliament, following a draft from the Socialist, Liberal, Green and Radical Left groups, adopted a resolution that asks Hungary to review the law. According to Fidesz MEP József Szájer, the Parliament discredited himself by adopting the text. He said that this decision would be regarded as a "belated shot", because the Hungarian National Assembly had already amended the law in question. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a leading figure in the open fire against the Hungarian media law, co-leader of the Green group has already criticised the Hungarian Prime Minister during the debate about the priorities of the Hungarian presidency. He called Viktor Orbán the Chavez of Europe, a national-populist. Cohn-Bendit was the leader of the 1968 student riots in Paris, and previously called himself a Marxist-anarchist. He received the nickname "Red Danny" after he proposed to use a red flag instead of the French Tricolore. The politician who has the reputation of a daredevil in the EP, is keen on finding targets to attack. For example, once an Italian candidate for Commissioner had to withdraw after Cohn-Bendit spoke against his statements against homosexuals and women. The Italian politician, in his answer, reminded that Cohn-Bendit himself had been accused of paedophilia, something that the Green group-leader hadn't denied even in his autobiography. The Hungarian government can expect renewed attacks from Cohn-Bendit, who has declared his ambition to keep the Hungarian media law on the agenda.

Hungarian State Radio, news programme at noon; 11 March 2011

Presenter: As we have already reported yesterday, the European Parliament, on its plenary session in Strasbourg, adopted a resolution calling on the Hungarian government to review the media law. One of the initiators of yesterday's decision was Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-leader of the group of the Greens, a well-known figure in European politics. Background information follows from Géza Tasner.

Géza Tasner: The politician again appealed to the principles of democracy yesterday, although he had been an open supporter of Marxism previously. During his university years in France, he belonged to a number of anarchistic groupings that believed in communism and confronted the civic system of governance. This gave him his nickname "Red Danny". He suggested that the French state should use the red flag instead of the Tricolore. In 1968, he was expelled from the country, so he returned to Germany where he joined German anarchists. In 1984, he joined the Green Party of Germany, and in ten years, he was elected member of the European Parliament. He was not only attacked because of his Marxist past but also because of his suspected paedophilia. In his own book, he wrote the following about this: "It happened quite often that some kids opened my fly and started to caress me. Depending on the circumstances, I always reacted in a different way, but their desires caused me a problem. I asked them: why don't you play with each other? Why did you choose me, and not all the other kids? But when they insisted, I also caressed them. For this, I have been accused with perversion." Here ends the quotation from the book. This politician with scandalous past now prides himself as the biggest and most violent defender of democracy in the European Parliament. This year, by now, he has mostly attacked the Hungarian government, sometimes in a not-so-European manner.

Last Updated on Thursday, 05 May 2011 21:11