Hungarian reflection on the Cologne gang assaults
January 8th, 2016A conservative columnist criticizes the liberal media for failing to report on the Cologne and Hamburg assaults. A left-wing pundit thinks proper coverage was impossible in the absence of factual evidence.
In Magyar Hírlap, Ottó Nagy finds it absurd that it took the Hungarian left-wing media five days to report on the Cologne and Hamburg gang assaults. The conservative commentator accuses liberal media outlets in Germany and the US of deliberately refusing to offer detailed coverage of the New Years’ Eve attacks on women in German cities. Nagy alleges that ‘remaining silent’ about the fact that, according to the victims, the perpetrators were North African males is another example of misrepresentation of the ‘facts’ of migration under the aegis of political correctness.
As the Cologne and Hamburg assaults were not covered in detail in the German press, it is unfair to blame the absence of proper reports on the Hungarian left-wing media, Márton Gergely responds in Népszabadság. Even today, we do not have detailed information on the events, and there is no evidence that the assault was committed by migrants, the left-wing commentator notes. In conclusion, Gergely finds it sad that in Hungary, tragedies including the death of migrants who drown while crossing the Mediterranean on the one hand, as well as the German assaults on the other, are used for ideological purposes in the highly polarized debate over the refugee crisis.