(RSF/IFEX) – In a 24 August 1999 letter to the prime minister, Victor Orban, RSF protested the seizure of reporter Aniko Dicsoe’s videotape by the agriculture minister, Jozsef Torgyan. RSF asked Orban to condemn the move as an attempt to stifle press freedom. Recalling that Hungary has signed the European Convention on Human Rights, secretary-general […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 24 August 1999 letter to the prime minister, Victor Orban,
RSF protested the seizure of reporter Aniko Dicsoe’s videotape by the
agriculture minister, Jozsef Torgyan. RSF asked Orban to condemn the move as
an attempt to stifle press freedom. Recalling that Hungary has signed the
European Convention on Human Rights, secretary-general Robert Ménard asked
the authorities “to ensure that all journalists in Hungary can at least work
freely and write on all issues such as political and social problems in
accordance with international standards.”
On 22 August, the agriculture minister asked his bodyguard to seize Dicsoe’s
videotape. The journalist works for Duna TV in Budapest. The journalist was
conducting an interview with Torgyan about the problems of Hungarian
agriculture when the minister became angry and ordered the bodyguard to
seize the tape. On 24 August, the minister denied being
responsible for the incident, but he was contradicted by the guard’s
official report, which supports Dicsoe’s statement.
