We find it amusing that Magyar Nemzet, having failed to negatively paint our society as a sort of EU “lobby group”, resorted to unveiling one by one the political past and connections of our members in its article published on 9 March 2015*. It is funny that the journalist removed the question mark from our news item “Dialogue between Friends?” about the meeting with André Goodfriend, the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy to Hungary, suggesting as if the dialogue had been between the USA and the HES, while the title naturally concerned the increasing difficult relations between the US and the Hungarian governments. Tellingly, the article characterised the Washington-based German Marshall Fund, which strives to maintain its bipartisan character, as a left-leaning organisation. We were less amused by the numerous factual errors concerning career paths of selected HES members. Our frustration was increased by the fact that our association (and not a foundation) already experienced a similar attack in the autumn of 2010 when - similarly to previous occasions when criticising former governments -, we expostulated measures of the Orbán government. And we are simply outraged that the article, without even hiding it, fits well into the centralised discrediting campaign against Hungarian civil organisations.
Budapest, 9 March 2015
The English translation of the Magyar Nemzet article
*Buzna, Viktor: Civilek vagy lobbisták társasága? Magyar Nemzet, 9 March 2015