According to Deputy Secretary of State for International Communications Ferenc Kumin, the image of Hungary in the international press has improved recently and attention is instead centred around how Hungary has managed to achieve such positive changes.

A report by the Nézőpont Intézet's Media Workshop entitled "Hungary in the world press - 2012" was published on Wednesday in Budapest. Ferenc Kumin also took part at the event, stressing that increasing numbers of positive reports are being published about Hungary. He said that opinions are especially positive in Central Europe, and expressly in Poland.

The content of articles always depends on what happens to be the agenda of the day in politics, he continued. Symbolic issues, and topics that are easily interpreted abroad are usually at the forefront, and there is continued high interest in Hungary. For instance, there are a similar number of requests for interviews with the Prime Minister as there were a year ago, but the issues of interest have changed: today, people are more interested in how we managed to achieve such positive changes in Hungary, he said. Our experience shows that articles with a negative tone are usually prepared with little or no background research, while reports that are actually produced on site paint a more detailed picture. Negative writings are usually published in the form of personal opinions, but the writers of such articles are generally interested in writing critical pieces in any case, he added. Mr. Kumin also spoke of the fact that the Government does its best to provide regular information in foreign languages to those f
oreign journalists who regularly write about Hungary, and also try to make the best use of opportunities in the public media. Published articles often contain tangible errors, which are always "put right" as soon as possible, concentrating only on the mistakes themselves, without influencing the author's opinion.

We would like to invite as many foreign journalists to Hungary as possible, he noted, so that they may report on the basis of their own experiences.

Head of the Media Workshop Zsolt Antal explained that during the course of their study, they had examined articles on news about Hungary from forty sources of media in seven countries, examining the topic and tone of 3659 articles on the country. The study concluded that Hungary is the most often commented topic in the United States of America, where a total of 840 articles on Hungary were published last year, and that is also where the most favourable articles are published about the country. The German and British press published 746 and 656 articles on Hungary, respectively.

Zsolt Antal added that the Bloomberg and Reuters press agencies had written the most about Hungary.

46.5 percent of last years' articles were unfavourable, 47.7 were neutral and 5.8 percent were written in a favourable tone, he stated. In his opinion, international interest in Hungary was intensive, but with the exception of a well-defined jump, the proportion of negative articles in the international press declined continuously during the second half of 2012. 

With regard to the topics of articles, he emphasised that the international press wrote the most articles on measures introduced by the Hungarian Government, and the state of the Hungarian economy was also of interest, as was Hungary's relationship with the EU. Mr. Antal stressed that the most articles on Hungary were published last January, more than 700, which is a result of the previous period. At the time, the Fundamental Law, the excessive deficit procedure, the negotiations with the IMF and EU and the Peace March were the main topics, he reminded those present, noting that the number of articles later levelled out at around 300, which is a "normal and balanced" state and shows that the situation has become consolidated.

(Prime Minister's Office)