Spurned
The reporter who covered the Szabadsag ter demonstrations for rolling news channel HirTV was not allowed into Parliament. Zoltan Rudi, president of Hungarian TV (MTV), had the same TV station's crew escorted out of his channel's press conference. The Free Democrats are demanding an apology, while HirTV is expressing concern that its freedom to inform is being threatened.
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Katalin Szili, the president of Parliament, was visiting the MTV building. HirTV's crew arrived and asked to interview her. The head of MTV said: "I asked my colleagues to escort them out of the building." He said: "This is perfectly normal in the case of any organ that is biased and that behaves shamefully."
The Free Democrats have also stated: "Until HirTV officially apologises to Hungarian society, members of the Liberal group in Parliament will not speak to the station."
The Free Democrats said in a statement: "When a reporter tells police that he is not with them, when he crows in delight when demonstrators take over the headquarters of public television, when he supports a crowd that has seriously injured policemen, invading a public service institution, then that reporter is behaving extremely unethically, and we cannot allow that to pass unremarked."
One of HirTV's reporters asked prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany at a press conference whether these moves did not infringe the press's right to inform. The prime minister said: "I cannot decide who speaks to whom, but it seems to me that politicians are happy to talk to trustworthy television stations that report accurately."
Laszlo Solyom, the President of the Republic, said: "I am outraged that the violent crimes committed in front of the headquarters of Hungarian Television have been compared to the 1956 revolution." Here, too, he was surely referring to HirTV's reporting. Index collected examples of the TV station's strongly biased account.
Record of Gyurcsanys speech
A hijacker storms into the cockpit and threatens the crew with a gun. He screams that if they don't follow his orders, he'll shoot them. "If you shoot us, who will fly the aeroplane," asks the captain. "I don't think that far ahead," the pirate replies.
The TV under siege
Some 50 protestors have moved from Kossuth ter to protest in front of the Hungarian Television building. The protestors returned to Kossuth ter for reinforcement, and then returned to break down the building's front door. Police vans arrived at 11.30pm. The police have announced that they were launching an investigation into the attackers and would prevent anybody entering the television headquarters.
Gyurcsany Is Threatened by Potential Crisis
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany was facing a potential crisis Sunday after he admitted on a clandestine tape leaked to radio stations that his party had lied. "Obviously we have lied over the last ... two years. It is clear that what we were saying was not true," Gyurcsany says on the tape, which was supposedly recorded on May 26, just one month after the prime minister's ruling coalition had been re-elected.
Hungary PM admits to deluge of lies
Hungary's prime minister acknowledged as legitimate a recording made in May in which he used foul language and said the government had lied for two years.
