Viktor Orbán placed an ad in the “Bild” newspaper in which he made “suggestions” on the future of the EU. Critics accuse the Hungarian head of government of “propaganda”.
Viktor Orbán is blowing again through the German forest of leaves. Hungary’s prime minister, who is criticized for gradually undermining the rule of law, had recently made some headlines: For one and thoughtful, in the ranks of the EU heads of government.
The strong headwind from Brussels has apparently prompted Orbán to expand his view of things – on a full-page newspaper advertisement. In the “Bild” newspaper () there is an advertisement by the Hungarian government, signed by Orbán, with “Hungary’s proposals” on the “future of the European Union”. The seven proposals, which read more as demands and EU criticism, cause irritation and dissenting voices.
“Our role is not to censor advertising”
Orbán criticizes, for example, that Brussels is building a “superstate” and a “European empire”. He rejects the European objective of “ever closer unity”, stating that the EU Parliament has turned out to be a “dead end”. “We have to restore European democracy,” urges Hungary’s head of government, whose country was last with it.
“Full-page Orban propaganda as an advertisement in a picture,” commented EU MP Dennis Radtke (CDU) on the advertisement on Twitter. Orban is “attacking parliament as the only directly democratic and legitimized institution in the EU” and does not shrink back from any lie. “We continue to fight for the rule of law, no matter how many advertisements follow,” said Radtke.
Other Twitter users complained and.
“For us at Axel Springer, freedom, in particular freedom of opinion, is a cornerstone of everything we stand for and something that the editorial offices of all our media defend,” said a spokesman for the publisher in which the “Bild” newspaper appears, at the request of the stern. This freedom applies to Axel Springer regardless of whether the publisher shares an opinion or not. “Freedom also means enduring other opinions and positions – especially when it is difficult. Our role is not the censorship of advertising.” It is “explicitly irrelevant whether we share the content of a booked ad or not – the sender of an ad is not us, but our booking customer,” said the spokesman.
Reporters Without Borders lists Orbán as an “enemy of freedom of the press”
Orbán himself seems to value his own worldview above all else. “For years human rights have been attacked and the rule of law undermined in Hungary”,. “Freedoms are being restricted, freedom of expression and the press are under massive pressure and the independence of the courts is at risk.”
Since Monday, the day the EU-critical advertisement was published in the “Bild” newspaper, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has included a head of government from the European Union in its regular list of “enemies of press freedom” for the first time: Orbán. “Since Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party came to power in 2010, they have gradually brought Hungary’s media landscape under their control,” criticized the journalists’ association in Berlin.
The list includes 37 heads of state and government who embody the ruthless repression of the freedom of the press in a particularly drastic way. Orban is now in line with China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping, Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad and the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
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