“If you were a revolutionary, which TV would you seize?”

Protests began after the public airing on public radio of a private meeting with Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in which he explicitly declared that politicians had “…lied all day,” and “…lied all night…” in the years since the fall of the communist regime. Several thousand protestors gathered at the Hungarian Parliament building Sunday night. After being turned away, they turned to the Magyar Television building just across the square. They were quoted, largely after the fact, as intending only to ask the MTV staff to read over the air their statement calling for the Pms resignation.

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Eventually a few gained access to the building and proceeded to vandalize. Employees were evacuated, police arrived and protesters left after setting a few fires about 330 am Monday morning Budapest time.

One ftm Media Sleuth in Hungary suggested that MTV was specifically targeted because “it’s a socialist station and the Prime Minister is a socialist.”

Another Hungarian ftm Media Sleuth pointed to an old MTV advertising campaign, remarkable in its irony. The main frame of the campaign used, in retrospect, a most unfortunate tag line: “If you were a revolutionary, which TV would you seize?”

Through the remainder of the week other media outlets caught the attention of those eager to complain, now regularly referred to as hooligans. RTL Klub and local station hirTV had visits from protests groups, including a few bomb threats. RTL Klub fired one of its football commentators for participating in the riot at MTV headquarters.

Outgoing EBU President Arne Wessberg directed to PM Gyurcsány concerns about Hungary’s slow path to media reform in a letter earlier this month. The puzzling inaction by the political set to enact much needed changes to media legislation has been long noted by observers in and out of Hungary. And now we know the reason. As the PM said, for years “we’ve done nothing.”

“If you were a revolutionary, which TV would you seize?”

Regrettable but true, protesters in the Hungarian capital Budapest continued violence through the week, specifically targeting media outlets.