Two weeks ago, I wrote about the announcement by German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle that they would be launching new, Hungarian-language programming.
Why would they do that? Because, according to Deutsche Welle’s general director, “media plurality in Hungary is in danger.”
The elite of Germany’s media establishment in Berlin are passionate about pluralism, so they will be serving up, and I quote, “real stories” to Hungarian audiences.
Would you like a glimpse of the kind of “real stories” we can expect from Deutsche Welle? Take a look at this example of objective, balanced journalism:
A DW crew came to Budapest recently and produced a story under the title, “Orbán’s Nostalgia,” about the Orbán Government’s renovations of Kossuth Square – Budapest’s showcase square where the Hungarian National Assembly stands – and the historic Castle District of Buda.
These are proof, according to the DW reporter, of the government’s extreme nationalism, nostalgia for 1944, and recall an era of Jewish persecution, which is stirring fear among Jewish residents.
Their sources: the opposition mayor of the Buda Castle District, a historian well known for his criticism of the government, and a “random” Castle District resident who just happens to bump into the mayor and DW crew on the street. The resident says how unhappy he is with the gentrification of his neighborhood and later refers to his wife, who is Jewish, and how it’s impossible to know what’s happening in the country and makes reference to Jewish residents boarding trains.
Seriously. This from a media outlet that wants to lecture us about pluralism in media.
Set aside for a moment the bizarre irony of German state media coming to Budapest to produce a story criticizing the Hungarian government for restoring national heritage sites that were destroyed in World War II.
Instead, just consider how ridiculously slanted that reporting is. No use of sources that represent the other side of the story. No mention whatsoever of all that the Orbán Government’s have done to address anti-Semitism, penalize hate speech, promote Holocaust education in schools and support Hungary’s Jewish community – see here and here.
Those are hard facts, but they would be inconvenient truths for the sensational story that the DW reporter was determined to produce.
Who besides me is looking forward to Deutsche Welle’s Hungarian-language service?
Photo credit: DW