On March 11, a panel discussion on “The Role of the Media in Resilient Democracies” took place at Ambassador Julia Gross’s residence.
As part of the event, Dr. Zoltán Szalai, editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Mandiner and general director of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), and Jennifer Wilton, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Die Welt together. Among other things, it was about the state of press freedom and the media landscape in Hungary as well as the monotony of the German media. But more technical topics such as the change and survival of print media, new trends in (conservative) journalism and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) were also discussed.
Strong opinion despite lack of expertise
At the event, which surprisingly took place in English – all of the discussants would have preferred German – it became clear not only that there are fundamental differences in the German and Hungarian views of media policy, but also that despite a lack of knowledge about Hungary or the Hungarian media market can have a strong opinion on both. It was also noticeable in the audience that the Hungarian media representatives could be divided into two camps, whose perceptions and positions differed greatly.
At the beginning of the panel discussion, Szalai analyzed the media situation in Hungary and Germany and stated that daily newspapers will not have a future in the print media market, but monthly and bi-monthly magazines as well as topic magazines will. In his opinion, the focus will no longer be on the rapid production of news, but rather how it is evaluated, i.e. the classification of news in the form of comments or interviews. On the other hand, it will no longer be important to say who will be coach at Bayern Munich, because every news portal can present that immediately.
The question will be how the message will be interpreted. For example, whether the new coach is a good choice for the team and why. Szalai emphasized that the German image of Hungary and the Hungarian image of Germany is fundamentally positive, but the migration crisis of 2015 and the different reactions to it, more precisely the hostile reaction of the German press to Hungarian politics, marked a turning point for the German press . He also pointed out that there are currently six times more negative than positive news about Hungary in the German press.
AI only as support
Wilton was also of the opinion that the survival of printed magazines and periodicals was possible in the long term. She is also confident that Die Welt can develop a viable business model in a difficult economic climate. The discussion also focused on the challenges and opportunities of AI. There are functions, especially when operating a website, that could be replaced or simplified by AI applications. However, AI is not used to write independent articles – all the material is checked, edited and written by humans, only some data is collected and sorted using AI.
Different circles, different information
Regarding the questions about Hungary, Wilton complained that there was very little information about Hungary – she only socialized in certain circles when she was in Budapest. In response to Szalai’s cited statistics about the Hungarian media market and the statement that the Hungarian press has never been so diverse since the fall of communism, she countered that she had other information.
However, when asked which statistics she was referring to and from which sources this information came, Wilton failed to answer. When asked by the audience why the German media reported predominantly negatively about Hungary and whether they could name a positive government measure from the last 14 years, the spectacular answer was that the German journalists would certainly write something positive if there was something positive . As a positive example, she then cited the fact that the demonstrations against the government were reported positively.
Conclusion
If the editor-in-chief of a newspaper that describes itself as conservative cannot think of anything positive about the work of the conservative Hungarian government, then this attitude says more about the legitimacy of the criticism and the state of the German media than many people think. To avoid misunderstandings: The Hungarian government can and should be criticized – including by the German media.
But this criticism should be based on facts, statistics and at least background knowledge so that it is not perceived as a raised moral finger and can make a constructive contribution to the discussion about aspects of German-Hungarian relations. Unfortunately, apart from the technical discussion about journalism, this was not achieved at the event either, although the German Embassy’s initiative to bring media representatives from both countries together is of course to be welcomed.
The author is project coordinator of the German-Hungarian Institute for European Cooperation at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium.
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