The deputy faction leader of the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) won a lawsuit against Népszava in the second instance. According to the court's reasoning, the newspaper violated his personal right to human dignity asserted in connection with his belonging to the Christian religious community due to its caricature and text mocking Jesus, Magyar Nemzet reported.
Gábor Pápai's caricature, which caused a public scandal, was published in the left-wing paper in the spring of 2020. In addition to the crucified Jesus, the picture also showed the national chief medical officer Cecília Müller, who at the time was repeatedly whipped by the liberal and left-wing press for wearing a cross at press conferences. The voiceover text read: "His underlying medical condition caused addiction."
The cartoonist - who on other occasions touched the hearts of many on the subject of Trianon - defended himself by saying that he only wanted to hold up a crooked mirror against the turn often heard at the operative tribe's daily press conferences, but he never explained why he needed the figure of Christ for this.
After the publication of the outrageous drawing, Vasarnap.hu and CitizenGO launched a joint signature collection. In this context, we stood up for Christian values, took the figure of Jesus Christ under our protection and stood up for journalism that creates value and carries value.
About 34,000 people took to the streets in this way against the serial defamation of religion by the left-wing press.
Imre Vejkey, the deputy parliamentary faction leader of the Christian Democratic People's Party, initiated a lawsuit against Gábor Pápai. At first instance, the court considered that the image was not offensive - this erroneous decision was now overwritten by the second instance procedure.
According to the Magyar Nemzet article, the verdict also includes that Népszava must pay four hundred thousand forints to Vejkey, as well as reimburse the court costs. "I consider the final judgment extremely important for the protection of the Christian community. It is important because, as a Christian, I felt like a second-class citizen at the first instance trial, but this verdict restored order; Christians also have basic rights, they can be enforced in court. It is scandalous that during the first-degree proceedings it was said that you can joke with Jesus and relativized the situation - it was an amazing judge's position, I am glad that these issues were corrected by the second-degree proceedings - Imre Vejkey told Vasarnap.hu.
The representative also touched on the fact that, in his view, the case has many interesting aspects, since after the first-instance verdict, his photo was placed on a wall of shame at the Swiss headquarters of an international journalist association simply because he defended the rights of Christians and our Lord, Jesus Christ. As he said, this action is especially questionable in light of the second-degree verdict. He also finds it strange that MÚOSZ, as a professional organization, inaugurated a graphic as the best drawing of the year last year, the author of which now has a legally binding document stating that his "work" is illegal and offensive.
"It was a wonderful thing that an unprecedented church unity was created with the joint participation of the denominations in relation to the incriminated picture. The Christian churches stood together behind the case, the Jewish communities also assured us of their sympathy," the KDNP deputy faction leader told our newspaper.
"The case's serious message to Christians is that they may try to oppress us, some parties may even attack the secret of confession, but we should stand up for Christ, we should defend our faith. We can't be silent when we see these attacks - if they dare to do this from the opposition, what will they do against us, if God forbid, they will come to power one day?!" asked Imre Vejkey.
The representative announced: he will offer the amount awarded by the court as compensation to Catholic Charities.
Source: Vasárnap.hu Image: Pixabay
