it will "abstain from judgment," according to documents obtained Friday, June 4.
Lovas, who led a media campaign against the journalist in his conservative Magyar Nemzet newspaper, asked the Council to condemn a Bos news story carried by the Dutch General News Agency (ANP) because it described him as "a far right commentator" and one of his speeches at a January protest against a Budapest radio station as perceived as "anti-Semitic."
Bos also reported that during the far right demonstration against the alternative Tilos Radio the Israeli flag was burned and that protestors carried flags used by Hungarian fascists during World War Two, when an estimated 600,000 Hungarian Jews were massacred.
Lovas argued however that the flag was burned after the demonstration and that the only aim of the article was to discredit the opposition as anti-Semitic. However ANP Editor-in-Chief Rob de Spa stressed the story focused on news that the Israeli Embassy complained about the protest and that Lovas’ speech was added to explain the atmosphere of the event.
"EXTREME LEFT"
He added that ANP has also called people “extreme left” when appropriate, according to Council documents. Bos argued however that the words of Lovas could hardly be seen as "extreme left." In the speech Lovas said that a "minority hate the Hungarian nation and Christianity" and that it was seeking “total control over national resources."
Editor-in-Chief Peter A. Bergwerff of the Dutch Christian daily Nederlands Dagblad also defended his paper’s decision to carry Bos story as distributed by ANP, saying several other organizations including the Stephen Roth Institute of the Tel Aviv University and a publication of the Central Europe Review on Jewish life in Hungary confirmed the article’s observations.
The Council said the fact that Lovas had not made available his speech in a language it understood as well as its lack of knowledge of Hungary’s political situation made it impossible to rule on the case "with the demanded carefulness."
PRAYERS ANSWERED
In a reaction Bos said he was “extremely pleased with the outcome as it was also an answer to prayers of concerned Christians who have supported me and my wife throughout this ordeal.” He stressed it was “a further boost for press freedom in Hungary which only recently became European Union member, and an encouragement for critical reporters to do their work in a hostile environment.”
A little more than a decade ago a media adviser of the centre right government, Tom Kennedy, took the journalist to court for reporting about plans that hundreds of journalists would be fired for political reasons from the state run radio and television, ahead of upcoming elections. Bos quoted Kennedy as saying that they were all seen as "alcoholics" and "Communists."
The journalist won that libel case as well. While the Dutch Council of Journalism is not a court of law and has no power to impose sanctions or fines, it can request Dutch media to publish its opinion in whole or in part.
