Readers’ Letters: Media Wars – The Empire Strikes Back?

Recently one of my friends visited me here in Budapest from the Netherlands. Whilst I was showing her around in the city, I was describing some of the main chapters of our history. No wonder, she was amazed when hearing about the gory centuries that were full of struggles for power over here. Ottomans, Habsburgs, Germans, Russians – all these huge influential empires with their local collaborators and us, Hungarians on the other side. Constantly revolting and rising up against their rule.

We were walking right in front of the Parliament when suddenly she turned to me and said: „Tell me rather about that what’s been going on in Hungary recently. Is it true that the whole country is more and more corrupted? Is that right that your second most popular party is the Nazi party? Do you really want to quit the EU and NATO, so you can join Putin just to get gas?”

I was astonished how misinformed she was. Yet, being familiar with the titles of the articles that are recently published in international newspapers, I had nothing really to be surprised about.
Hungary is based in a region where there has always been some tension present due to its geopolitical position. Empires with different interests have been fighting above our heads for their interests and of course always managed to convince some of the locals for their causes too. In our times in the 21st century, this ’war’ still hasn’t stopped, but changed in a way: it is being fought behind the courtains hidden from everyone and yet at the same time, in front of the public too, namely in the mass media. This warfare’s main weapon is the knowledge of information or the provision of misinformation.

If one looks at recent years’ articles written about Hungary abroad, several main topics are being continously misinterpreted or communicated in a negative way to the public. Examples include Viktor Orban’s thoughts on ’illiberalism’ and his views on the changing structure of world politics, the continously growing popularity of the alleged ’Nazi party’ called Jobbik amongst young educated intellectuals, or the sensible situation of unemployed Roma people and those everyday cultural clashes derived from their lifestyle… etc. There is such a huge misinterpretation present between what international media shows and what those who are living here see day by day, that it has to be due to something else than simple mistranslation. Hungarians and foreigners who live here exactly know that most of the articles which can be read in the international media about Hungary is ridiculously overexaggerated and likely to be purposely deceived.