#ForeignPress

[psychicstatic]

Super cool and equally rare #taiwanesepressing from the #incrediblesound label. #genesis #thelambliesdownonbroadway #doublealbum #foreignpressing https://www.instagram.com/p/B-nEU3nJ7vN/?igshid=1sfhwqh1jsvu8

[nothoward]

I have seen at least 100 photos of the "stars" on the red carpet leading into the Golden Globes. A representative segment of the population of humans seem to have forgotten where the stars really are. I find that a fascinating and unfortunate phenomenon. Not quite as fascinating as green Jell-O, but much more unfortunate.

[roymanansala]

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Total Recall. @labcatzent #YumBones #InRetrospect #SleepyHeads #LabCatz #GoodIKEABadIKEA #Tape #LateKnights #EarlyMournings #ForeignPress

[ferenckuminblog]

Hungary’s Image Improves in International Press

Yesterday, a Hungarian think tank, Nézőpont Intézet (or Perspective Institute) published a study (link in Hungarian) on Hungary's image in the international press. The study analyzed 40 media outlets from seven countries (Austria, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States). Overall, it was good to see that the depiction of Hungary improved considerably in 2012.

In fact, if you exclude September's data regarding the extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan -- an isolated story that generated a lot of coverage -- then the 2012 data shows a healthy downward trend, according to Nézőpont's data.

Chart illustrates the percentage of foreign press coverage with a negative sentiment about Hungary. Source: Nézőpont Intézet.

Studies like this help us focus on the main issues that interest foreign journalists. According to Nézőpont, topics garnering the most coverage in 2012 include: legislation and other work of the government, and the state of the Hungarian economy and EU-Hungary relations. Issues like Hungary's negotiations with EU and IMF, the election of the new Hungarian president, the Far Right in Hungary and the state of Hungarian opposition parties also attracted significant coverage.

The United States produced the largest portion of the coverage, but Germany followed a close second. Two English-language media outlets generated the largest volume of coverage: Bloomberg and Reuters. Most of the coverage -- 45.7 percent -- took the form of news summaries.

[defensenow]

Australian PM Albanese's Historic State Visit to the USA: Preview of Was...

[ferenckuminblog]

Distorting Spiegel

As I have written a couple of times (see here and here), we occasionally receive feedback and criticism that leads to healthy, constructive debate. Often times, though, what we encounter are politically biased, misinformed and inaccurate dispatches passed off as news reporting, analysis or even documentary.  I refer to it as Hungary-bashing.

From time to time, sources otherwise respected as trustworthy and reliable slip into Hungary-bashing, spreading misleading and false information. One of the latest examples comes from the German paper Spiegel (or, Mirror). The article, which German readers can check out here, presents the view that the political agenda of today's center-right government is influenced by the extremist Jobbik.

Spiegel.de reflects a distorted image of Hungary.

I posted a detailed comment under the piece, pointing out the most outrageous statements and factual errors. For those who do not read German, here's a quick summary:

Hungary’s government is not linked to the extremist opposition party, Jobbik. The government of Hungary takes every opportunity to condemn their provocative statements that often fall under the category of hate speech.

The educational curriculum does include the history of the Holocaust in Hungary. In fact it is part of the curriculum that is mandatory for high school graduation.

Zsolt Bayer’s anti-Roma statements have been condemned by Fidesz party politicians, like Justice Minister Navracsics and Fidesz founder Tamás Deutsch.

It is true that for certain violations the state may suspend welfare, but the intention of such provisions is to help families out of the vicious circle of poverty. For example, families receiving welfare support are required to send their children to school.

As you can see from these few examples, what we find here is another case of a journalist from a well-known media outlet failing to fulfill his basic journalistic responsibility for fact-checking and using multiple sources. The loser, once again, is the image of Hungary and the spirit of thoughtful debate as these politicallly charged voices take space from more reasonable, fact-based criticism. No government is perfect, and sometimes we too need to correct ourselves. But polemics and misinformed, factually incorrect reporting amounts to little more than Hungary-bashing.

As always, my door is open to any journalist interested in what's happening today in Hungary and our work. They should feel free to contact me at the coordinates listed on this blog.