2006. szeptember. 20. 12:17 hvg.hu Utolsó frissítés: 2006. szeptember. 20. 12:17 English version

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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The HirTV reporter who reported on the siege of MTV's headquarters was barred from Parliament on Tuesday. Police escorted a crew from the rolling news channel out of MTV's open press conference. Zoltan Rudi, president of MTV, said: "What they did yesterday was shameful."

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.