An attempt at fact checking in Hungary

It is perhaps not surprising that it was György Bolgár who introduced the call-in-show to Hungary in 1992 and recently began a series in 168 Óra entitled "Things that can happen!" which concentrates on the not quite truthful statements of politicians. Bolgár spent five years in the United States as the foreign correspondent of Magyar Rádió. At the time call-in-shows were unknown in Hungary, and Bolgár's superiors were at first not too enthusiastic about the idea. What would happen if somebody says something on air that is not quite appropriate? However, he persevered and his show became a favorite with the listeners. Subsequently he left Magyar Rádió and moved over to Klub Rádió. The program is still a favorite, mostly with liberals, although it is quite obvious that right-wingers also frequent his program if for nothing else but to phone in and argue with him.

As far as fact-checking is concerned it is not exactly a strong suit of Hungarian journalism. Sometimes well known journalists are unfamiliar even with recent events that have been all over the media. Maybe they only write and never read! György Bolgár's knowledge of Hungarian and foreign affairs, by contrast, is really remarkable. Occasionally he jokingly says that he is not a walking encyclopedia, but he is close to it. Moreover, he is a diligent man. If he is not sure of something he looks it up. Something a lot of people don't bother to do.

I would like to sample some of these fact-checking shorts of the last week or so. On March 22, Bolgár starts with Viktor Orbán who, by the way, refuses to give him an interview and with good reason. Bolgár concentrates on a recent speech of Orbán in front of Hungarian businessmen. According to Orbán for some years now it has been the practice of the Hungarian government to hide the true economic situation of the country and "falsify the budget's numbers." As a result the country lost its credibility and its creditworthiness in international financial circles.

After quoting a statement Bolgár considers to be untrue he always leads off with the same sentence:  "However, the fact is...." This time he continues that the Hungarian government didn't falsify any data. Instead it predicted more favorable results than eventually materialized. But that is not the same thing as actually falsifying numbers. Hungary's creditworthiness wasn't lost because the government falsified figures but because banks were unwilling to lend money in general and especially to a country as indebted as Hungary. However, adds Bolgár, in the last half a year Hungary's creditworthiness has been restored somewhat and by now the Hungarian government is able to borrow from international financial institutions. Something Orbán will also be able to do if he becomes the prime minister of the country.

A day later, on March 23, Bolgár's next victim was Gábor Kubatov, Fidesz's "party director." Kubatov is a simple auto mechanic who was discovered by Viktor Orbán to be a political wizard. Kubatov on HírTV claimed that the socialists ever since 1947 have been doing nothing else but slicing away at their opponents from the inside. (Actually he used the verb "leszalámizni" which is a reference to an alleged saying of Mátyás Rákosi, the Hungarian Stalin. It means that by cutting off slices from a stick of salami it becomes smaller and smaller and eventually it disappears.) The socialists, continued Kubatov, in this way managed to get rid of the Christian Democratic People's Party, the Smallholders, and MIÉP. Inside elements secretly working for the socialists ruined them.

Bolgár rightly points that "the fact is" that Rákosi with these tactics managed to achieve a one-party system while the socialists today couldn't accomplish this even if they wanted to. It is true that the Christian Democratic Party fell apart, but their members didn't end up in MSZP but in Fidesz. As for the Smallholders' Party it was in coalition with Fidesz, and perhaps József Torgyán could tell Kubatov "whether Fidesz or socialist politicians stood behind the counter in the butcher shop."

Zsolt Bayer, the notorious anti-semite and political hack, on Echo TV, perhaps the most "radical" television station in Hungary, said that in the 1970s the Israeli air force shot down a Hungarian commercial plane with 270 Hungarians aboard. He added that the Israelis decided to shoot the plane down because they suspected there was an Arab terrorist on the plane.

"However, the fact is" that an investigation into the incident failed to discover who shot down the MALÉV plane. At the time because of the civil war in Lebanon most airlines stop flying to Beirut. MALÉV didn't. It is true that the day before the incident the Palestine Liberation Organization opened an office in Budapest, but the PLO delegation left a day later on another plane. We also know that on the plane there were only 60 passengers and not 270. In those days MALÉV didn't have such large planes. Moreover, out of the 60 passengers there was only one Hungarian national and of course the 10-member crew. All others were foreigners. As for the perpetrator we simply don't know.

And let's finish up our survey with Viktor Orbán again. This time in connection with the affair of the two Israeli spy planes. Pilots from small countries, including those of Hungary, don't have enough space at home to practice the art of flying. Countries belonging to NATO can fly over each other's territory easily. They simply have to announce that a plane from such and such a country will fly over another country's airspace at such and such a time. Friendly nations that don't belong to NATO, like Israel, must ask for permission. This time Israel asked permission from Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to have two of their planes fly over; at Ferihegy, the Hungarian national airport, they were supposed to almost land but in the last second return to higher altitudes. Every country granted the appropriate permissions, though Turkey insisted that the Israeli planes carry no spy equipment.

Someone familiar with the details of the flight plan of two Israeli planes leaked the information about their arrival at Ferihegy. So there was a reporter on hand with a video camera. What followed was the typical Hungarian operetta. Neither the Ministry of Defense nor the National Security Office knew anything about the Israeli planes so the Hungarian government didn't look too good. Eventually everything was sorted out. It is the job of the Chief of Staff of the Army to grant these permissions. On paper he is supposed to inform the National Security Office, but there are so many of these flights that the two offices tacitly agreed not to bother to inform each other. The Ministry of Defense, according to the current rules and regulations, doesn't have to be informed.

Now we can return to Viktor Orbán's reaction to the Israeli planes. He said that it was amusing, or rather incredible, that the Ministry of Defense claims that it didn't get any information about the flight of Israeli spy planes in Hungarian airspace. And he continued: "I thought until now that they are the first ones who know about such things and immediately react. Either they force them down or oust them, or whatever. There are ways to handle such a thing."

Indeed there are ways to handle such a thing and perhaps the current practice is not the best, but can you imagine what would have happened if the Israeli planes that had permission to fly over Hungary would have been forced to land or chased away by Gripen fighters or even worse shot down? At the end Bolgár adds: "I am really curious what will happen to such planes after Viktor Orbán is the prime minister of the country. And what can that 'whatever' be? Will they go out to the airport to wave at them?"

I always enjoy reading György Bolgár's short pieces in the series "Things that can happen!" I learn a lot. For example, I knew nothing about the fate of the MALÉV plane on its flight to Beirut.

Comments

[David]

See this article about the Malev plane:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-articles/read.main?id=55

[Eva S. Balogh]

David""See this article about the Malev plane: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-articles/read.main?id=55"

Bolgár also mentioned the speculations about arms shipments and that MALEV planes according to rumors often carried weapons. Here the problem is that the details are falsified. For example, the number of passangers and their nationality and the certainty conveyed that the Israelis shot the plane down.

[Odin's lost eye]

The theory of the destruction of the MALEV flight 240 near Beirut on September 30th 1975 as reported on Hungarian T.V. a few years ago made me fall about laughing.
If the flights were being used for arms smuggling (as they probably were) the most likely answer would be that it was carrying amongst other things electrically fired detonators. Even though these things are ‘safe’ one of the precautions is that they are kept in metal boxes (Faraday Cages). The reason for this is that they can be set off by stray electrical surges. If one occurred on flight 240 and the detonators were not packed properly –to save weight- and a surge occurred –Poof!-.
For a fighter intercept (in 1975) one would have heard quite a lot of talk as the ground controllers brought the attacking aircraft within 10 to 15 nautical miles of the target etc.
The fact that there was no ‘MAYDAY’ call suggests that what ever happened was sudden and catastrophic. I have read in a Dutch blog that some 32 bodies were recovered of which 20 were Lebanese. The rest were said to be non-Lebanese and appear to have been buried in a common grave somewhere in the Lebanon. If this is true it was done to prevent post mortems from being carried out which would have ‘given the game away’.

[Erik the Reader]

An attempt of fact checking:
Zuschlag and his group was convected years for maffia style handling of European money: stealing. Zuschlag and his group was part of the a governmantal bureau led by Mesterházy Attila (the prime minister candidate of Mszp) part of the government led by PM Ferenc Gyurcsány. Conclusion: In any other western European country this would mean political and work responsibility for the stealing which happened under them. It would mean resigning from political life and the fact that they failed doing their job, thus they are not good for any leadership position.

[John T]

Erik - most of the miserable shower in Parliament (of all parties) should probably have resigned for failing the electorate. But quite frankly, looking at where the country is, and the mentality / outlook of many Hungarians these days, then Hungary probably has the politicans and public officials it deserves.

[Odin's lost eye]

To enter Hungarian airspace all foreign (and Hungarian) aircraft have to file a ‘Flight Plan’. Once filed and accepted by Hungarian Air Traffic Control the aircraft can then enter Hungarian airspace under the control of the Hungarian Air Traffic Control. They must fly in the various Hungarian Air Corridors and under the absolute control of Hungarian arm of EuroControl HU.
When the Russians wanted to fly to Yugoslavia to land Parachute troops This was largely prevented by Hungarian ATC refusing permission for the over flight.
As to the matter of the reported ‘approach’ to Freihegy. This could only have been done with the full consent of the Hungarian General flight controllers and would have been under the control of Ferihegy approach control. The Military air controllers are fully aware of everything which is going on currently and will occur in the future.
If the Gulfstreams had on board what I think they had on board they could have just vanished from the ATC RADAR. The military controllers would have been able to continuing tracking them as would their Slovak and Austrian NATO allies who are in continuous contact with each other.
NATO war planes only enter each others airspace as part of either locally of NATO wide exercises. Once in Hungarian airspace they are controlled by the Hungarian military controllers. They very often come to ‘play’ with the local Gryphons and Mig 29s.
The whole incident was used by the press to cause embarrassment to the Government. Incidentally the Jobbik Trolls are now blowing it up in such a way as to suggest that Israeli Merkava tanks were ready to roll across the great planes of Hungary. How the h**l they could get there the Trolls do not explain.

[Erik the Reader]

Odin's lost eye fails to report that the air traffic director Vágó József had to resign because of this. The flight was not reported to the National security and according to Vágó since 2008 not even one flight. In Hungary National Security (NBH) has to be reported of any incoming flight. According to NBH if they would have known about the Israeli spy planes they would have not allowed them in because they represent a high security risk.
A minor official was punished for this, true to their behavior no Mszp politician was tacking the rap.

[moving company]

Quite informative article. I can say that you shared informative information with it. It sounds like you have great knowledge in this field and you love to discuss with others.