News Channel Took Orders From Hungarian Gov’t
- 8 Oct 2015 9:00 AM
Government communication officials told HírTV on a weekly basis which politicians could be interviewed and what the topics should be before the channel’s owner Lajos Simicska broke with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in February, according to deputy director Péter Tarr. In an interview with media website Kreatív, Tarr said there was an unwritten rule that Jobbik was banned from HírTV and that few Socialist or other left-wing figures would appear.
HírTV has been exiled from the “Regime of National Co-operation” since February, he added, and Fidesz subsequently began a total boycott of the station on March 15, when “they didn’t even talk to us”.
“We experienced this as a liberation, as HírTV became a small island of freedom,” Tarr said, adding that he told staff to forget about self-censorship and to be like free and independent journalists.
Tarr said HírTV now follows “BBC principles” of journalism.
The Government Information Centre denied Tarr’s allegations, as “the government believes in the fundamental values of democracy, such as an independent and free press”.
Source: Hungary Around the Clock
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