#ethicsinjournalism

What happens when the Media decides the Narrative before the Facts are in? I completely agree with Cernovich that I am disappointed in Glenn Greenwald. And the story about the Oxford Journalist who got fired because she wrote the truth is especially troubling.

#EthicsinJournalism  

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my recurring themes here is “facts matter.” I sometimes write about instances where journalists from international media or foreign analysts reporting on Hungary have got it wrong, cases where the writer doesn’t seem to know, or simply neglects, important facts.

Today, we’re taking La Repubblica to task.

The letter below was written to the editor of La Repubblica, one of the biggest daily newspapers in Italy, by János Balla, the ambassador of Hungary to Rome.

Ambassador Balla calls the editor’s attention to an article written by his Berlin correspondent, Andrea Tarquini. The article, according to Ambassador Balla, is the “umpteenth time” he has published an article defaming Hungary with numerous factual mistakes. Reminding the editor of his responsibilities for ethical journalism, the ambassador asks that the newspaper publish his letter. As of this writing, La Repubblica has neglected to do so.

Some of Tarquini’s sloppiness and distortions are pretty bad. Please have a read for yourselves.

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Mr. Ezio Mauro, Director

La Repubblica, Via Cristoforo Colombo, 149

00147 Roma

Rome, April 5th, 2013

Dear Mr. Director,

I have read with perplexity the latest defamatory article by your Berlin correspondent, Andrea Tarquini, entitled “Hungary, 500 Thousand on the Run from Orbán. Such an exodus unseen even after ’56”. I would like to clarify that with this piece, your correspondent – known for his venomous articles full of malevolent falsities against our country – has overstepped every boundary of ethical journalism.

First of all, I would like to clarify that the article in Heti Világgazdaság, which Tarquini quotes in his piece, does not affirm what Tarquini writes. Heti Világgazdaság gives an estimate of the total number of Hungarians working abroad, not only of those who left after 2010. The majority of these people (who represent 5 percent of the population of Hungary, not 12 percent as Tarquini writes) have in fact left the country before 2010. Certainly a gradual growth in the number of emigrants can be observed since 2008-09 as a result of the economic crisis, but Hungarian emigration is still clearly lower than the regional average. 

It is evident that in the Schengen Zone (of which Hungary is also a member) there are no exact statistics available on the number of internal migrants. However there are some auxiliary indicators that can help us disprove Tarquini’s ridiculous accusations.

First of all, we can take a look at employment statistics: the number of employees in Hungary has been constantly increasing ever since the minimum of 2010 (3,781 million people), reaching 3,878 million people by 2012. Almost 100 thousand more people have a job in our country compared to 2010. This would certainly be impossible if 500 thousand people had left the country since 2010 as Tarquini suggests.

The second statistic to observe is by the Government of the United Kindgom, which has recently published the newest figures with regards to immigration in 2011-2012. According to this data – which tends to be quite exact, as the UK is not part of the Schengen Zone – 18,110 Hungarians have arrived to Great Britain in the past two years. With this number Hungary is 10th with regards to country of origin. At the same time 79,140 people have arrived from Poland, 33,190 from Lithuania (which has one third of the population of Hungary), 24,280 from Italy, 18,590 from Latvia (which has one fourth of the population of Hungary). Taking into account that Great Britain is one of the most – if not the most – popular destinations of Hungarian migrants, it’s easy to imagine how the tale of the 500 thousand Hungarian emigrants can be nothing more than a ridiculous assumption, proposed by someone who is completely out of touch with the reality in Hungary.

Tarquini writes that Hungary has not supplied unemployment data to Eurostat. That is simply not true. Everyone who visits the website of the Statistics Office of the European Union can in fact verify that unemployment in Hungary is at 10.9 percent, lower than that of the eurozone average (11.4 percent). 

Regarding the shameful comparison with the exodus of Hungarian refugees after the Soviet invasion of 1956, let me remind you that it was the current prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who delivered the most powerful speech in 1989 at the reburial ceremony of Imre Nagy and the other leaders of the Hungarian revolution. In his speech Viktor Orbán was the first to publicly call for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. An act of courage in the shadow of the Soviet tanks that quickly led him to worldwide fame. To compare the current “brain-drain,” which is due to mainly economic reasons – a problem in the entire region and if I’m not mistaken even Italy – in the framework of the liberty of movement of a unified Europe, to the exodus of Hungarian dissidents fleeing from imprisonment, torture or death is simply indecent and offensive towards the victims of the Soviet aggression. Heti Világgazdaság among others also reports – citing World Bank figures – that only 13 percent of Hungarian emigrants has a college degree, compared to 18.5 percent in the general population of the country. From this data it can be quite easily deducted that the Hungarian emigrants are slightly less educated than the average, therefore have difficulty finding work in their homeland in this time of economic crisis. 

It is the umpteenth time that your correspondent from Berlin publishes extremely biased articles full of gross factual errors and incorrect quotations from sources. I would like to remind you that the faithful representation of the facts is not an optional attitude for the press, but an absolute requisite, both morally and legally. The diversity of opinion in the press is a fundamental tool of every democracy, but the distortion of facts and citations to corroborate personal biases and aversions can never be acceptable.

In case of questions or uncertainties, I remain as always at your disposal for further clarifications. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for the expeditious publication of our rectification.

Best regards,