As 2022 plus also reported, Szilárd Szilárd, an employee of Pesti Srácok, was a guest journalist for ATV's Friday program Szigorlat, and the interviewee was Krisztina Baranyi. The mayor of Ferencváros refused to answer the PS employee's question, saying that he never speaks to "propaganda media, junk paid propagandists". In connection with the incident, Balázs Fürjes wrote an open letter to Krisztina Baranyi, the political secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, because he believed that freedom of opinion and speech had been violated.
You can read the open letter below:
Dear Madam Mayor!
In recent years, for the sake of Ferencváros and Budapest, we have been able to engage in meaningful, solution-seeking dialogue with each other several times. This is normal: it is in the interest of the people of Budapest that the actors responsible for the development of the city find a way to cooperate in relation to specific challenges, even if they otherwise have sharp political disputes.
The result of our personal cooperation is that a high-quality contemporary leisure and green park can be built in Ferencváros next to the National Athletic Center, which also implements your suggestions, and also that the government supports the expansion and renovation of the specialist clinic in Mester Street with more than HUF 5.5 billion. Thanks to our cooperation, the rehabilitation of the area bounded by Soroksári út - Koppány - Földváry streets - which is in a terrible state of disrepair - can start with a HUF 1.2 billion government grant, and more than 50 Ferencváros families can get a chance for a better life. You correctly acknowledged the other day that the government keeps its word, we will abide by what we agreed on, and our common affairs are progressing.
We were able to prove with actions that Budapest is not a battleground, and that the constructive cooperation of the capital's municipalities and the government is much more useful for the people of Budapest than just looking for what we disagree on.
We have plenty to argue about! You are a progressive left-wing politician, I am a national libertarian. We think completely differently about many things in the world. But we always had a mutual openness and non-prejudice in order to find solutions together in specific cases for the benefit of the people of Budapest. I also greatly appreciate that you, the people of Budapest, and for the sake of a national cause, the success of the 2023 World Athletics Championships, chose to cooperate with the government, even when many on the left labeled you as a collaborator.
That is why I am puzzled that you refused to answer the question of the journalist from Pesti Srácok, one of the three reporters who asked you, in the studio of ATV, a television station critical of the government, where you are otherwise a frequent guest. Moreover, he described the interviewer's newspaper as a liar, questioned the reporter's journalistic status and questioned the television as to how it could admit "people who have nothing to do with journalism and the profession".
In other words, as an elected politician, you qualified several editorial offices with strong adjectives, limited a journalist's freedom of speech and questioned the editorial freedom of the given television station. Thus offending the viewers and readers of the TV and online newspaper.
Mrs. Mayor, I respectfully ask you to consider the freedom of opinion and speech, the revision of the stance that restricts the freedom of the press, and to follow the wronged viewers, readers, editors, and journalists!
It is quite certain that we find all kinds of people in the audience of ATV and Pesti Srácok. Elderly, young, right-wing and left-wing, Budapest and rural, family and single, women and men, believers and atheists alike. Those from Ferencváros who would vote for you, and those who would not. Because we Hungarians are diverse.
It is part of the essence of our freedom that these differences should be allowed. That there are many different opinions, and living in a democracy, we have to tolerate opinions that are critical of us and argue with us, as well as those who formulate them. I myself also give interviews to newsrooms that are extremely critical of the government and are often biased, because I believe that we honor the viewers, listeners, and readers of these newsrooms, that is, the Hungarian voters, by answering the questions. Even if we don't agree in the slightest with the values and political views conveyed by the given medium.
The basic task of the media, whatever their orientation, is to inform, ask questions, and present different points of view. We, politicians, can help in this by answering the questions asked. Of course, you have the right to have sympathy for some mediums and dislike for others. At the same time, I am convinced that freedom of expression is not a left-wing privilege. Freedom of speech belongs to both the left and the right, and the Hungarian people have the right to learn a variety of opinions and positions.
Please don't help resurrect the bad tradition that only the left has freedom of speech and only the left can be right in public matters! This would be an exclusionary, anti-democratic and unfounded position.
Due to the respect for our freedom rights, freedom of speech and opinion, and the freedom of the press, it is important not to refuse if we are asked a critical question, even if we may have a dislike for the questioner. Because it is not the interviewer's personality or party affiliation that matters, but the audience, the citizens of Hungary. In this specific case, the readers of Pesti Srácok and the viewers of ATV. With all their political and opinion differences.
Trusting in your understanding:
Balázs Quail
