Hungary's International Spokesman said the current administration is still fighting the distorted country image painted by Western media.
Zoltán Kovács said an eight-year-long disinformation campaign is painting a distorted image of Hungary abroad.
A study conducted by think-tank Médianéző entitled "Still against headwinds", shows that international media references to Hungary in 2018 had been neutral in 61 percent of the reports, negative in 36 percent and only 3 percent of them had been positive.
Zoltán Kovács said Hungary shouldn't attempt to reposition itself against a "narrative that has firmly painted us into a corner" and should instead present its own story.
"The stories and facts we tell (...) are certainly closer to the truth than the narrative against us being disseminated in, say, the Western press," he said.
Kovács said the Hungarian government has never forced its will on the nation, but has simply given them opportunities that they can live with or reject, according to their own will. He added that the government isn't afraid of admitting its mistakes and is willing to correct non-functional decisions.
When comparing Hungary's media to that of the Visegrád Group, he said it is much more "inclined to the positive" there, showing that there is such a thing as a Central European world view.
The spokesman concluded that Central Europe never was and never will be like Western Europe. If Brussels doesn't take into account and accept the reasons for this, finding pan-European solutions will never be possible, he said.