One-sided reports on Orbán’s appearance in the European Parliament

An independent comparative study analyzing the echo of the debate in January 2012, taking place at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg shows clearly that the concerns with the Hungarian media law were totally valid and are still reasonable.

The Hungarian state media reported on the above mentioned event according to the expectations of the Hungarian government led by PM Viktor Orbán and the government-party Fidesz. Vice-head of the Hungarian Socialist delegation in the European Parliament Kinga Göncz asked for an analysis by the press service of the European Parliament to assay the echo in the Hungarian state media on the plenary debate concerning the Hungarian issue and to compare the result with international reports. According to Member of European Parliament (MEP) Kinga Göncz it came out in the reports of the Hungarian state media like the debate in the European Parliament was a clash between political parties and ideologies and the conclusion was that the only winner of this debate was PM Viktor Orbán protecting the Hungarian national interest bravely. According to the Hungarian reports the European Parliament blew up tiny, symbolic problems and reported that the Members of European parliament taking the floor in the plenary session were wholly uninformed and untrue. Contradicting the Hungarian state media, international reports underlined that the debate was mainly led by democratic concerns about Hungary and that the contradictions were not between the different political groups and ideas but between the European Union and the Hungarian government. The international reports also underlined that the support of PM Viktor Orbán by the European Peoples Party was quite moderate in this certain debate. MEP Göncz finally added that our concerns on the Hungarian media law were completely based on reality. The research was examining the following television programs: MTV (Hungarian state television), RTL Klub (Hungary), TV2 (Hungary) and the international programs of EuroNews, ZDF, ARD, France2 and TV5 Monde.