A leaked email shows that the news director of the public broadcaster (MTVA) ordered editors to include that the Münster attacker was “of migration background” – even though it was then clear that the guy who killed two on Saturday in Germany was born German and called Jens. 

The news director’s nickname is “Pitbull” and he is thought to have received the order from even higher up. By the evening when elections were almost over, the migration background bit was finally removed from the news.

This is just a tiny (albeit documented) example, but the newsroom of the public broadcaster has been known to take political orders and push Fidesz’ agenda exclusively. In February, Al Jazeera ran a report on Hungary where two state media employees discussed how they receive the angles and keywords for politically relevant news from above.

The report can be watched here – Hungary starts at 15:00

The face of the media in Hungary in 2018

The two MTVA journalists had their faces covered and their voices distorted. Journalists…

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