International media interest in Hungary intensified and the country's image in the foreign media improved overall last year compared to 2012, a report released on Thursday by the Nézőpont research institute shows. Deputy State Secretary for International Communications, Ferenc Kumin highlighted the positive tendencies in his presentation as well.

Ferenc Kumin, the Deputy State Secretary in charge of foreign press relations, confirmed the survey's conclusion that international media attention was most intensive towards Hungary in March, focussing on the fourth amendment to the Constitution.

This was the most talked-about topic in his department, after which the issue of homeless people arose during the end of the year. He attributed the improvement of Hungary's image in the international media to positive developments in the economy. Part of success was that the department managed to intensify its presence on community websites and establish a better working relationship with Budapest-based journalists. This made it possible to reach a better positive rating in the French press. The Deputy State Secretary added that it was a challenge to handle the articles published by the New York Times relating to anti-Semitism, which was a frequent issue, while they did not speak at all of a quite serious issue that happened in Romania, when an anti-Semitic song was played on public television.

A ‘demonic’ topic was the issue of a military-style children’s camp in Mogyoród, which the press portrayed as a place where extremist parents send their children to receive military training, although it was a mirror establishment of other military-style children's camps throughout the world, such as in the USA.

The institute conducted a second survey on Hungary's perception within the international media in 2013, after having concluded a similar study in the previous year.

Compared with 2012's examination of 3,659 items reported by 40 media outlets in seven countries, this year's analysis covered 6,800 articles in 57 online and printed outlets in 12 countries, Zsolt Antal, the head of Nézőpont's media monitoring section, told a press conference.

About 5-6 percent of articles had a positive content in both years, whereas the proportion of articles reflecting negatively on the country dropped to 33 percent last year from 43 percent in 2012, he said. The proportion of articles with a neutral content increased. Most articles were published in Germany. The most positive articles appeared in the Polish media, praising the introduction of religion classes in primary schools and government measures to help troubled foreign currency debtors, he said.

The largest number of positive reports appeared in May and June, when favourable data on GDP growth and low inflation was released.

Mr. Antal said that two of the leading international new agencies, Reuters and Bloomberg, carried the largest number of reports about Hungary, concerning mostly economy-related issues in a neutral tone.

(MTI/Prime Minister’s Office)