State-run channels Duna TV and MTV blurred out the face of former Supreme Court president Zoltán Lomnici in an interview on Saturday. An inside source told Népszabadság that a senior MTV official has issued a “directive” that Lomnici is “persona non grata” at the channel.

MTV sources speaking on condition of anonymity said Lomnici has long held pariah status at the state-run television station. Index.hu writes that a former rival of Lomnici for the post of chief justice, who is in close contact with a staff member at MTI Hírcentrum, is behind the development. Lomnici said he had received a tremendous number of phone calls and e-mails over the matter, with media lawyers telling him this was the most severe act against freedom of the press of the last 20 years. However, he said “as a public figure” he has never sued anyone, adding that “this is a matter of conscience”, and “whoever committed the act must face the consequences”. Media Authority PR director László Szabó admitted the “grave ethical misdemeanour” and said efforts will be made to find the guilty party. Lomnici had been speaking about the consequences of depriving ethnic Hungarians of their Slovak citizenship in Slovakia, in his capacity as a Council of Human Dignity leader.Source: Hungary Around the Clock