Defamation Concerns Emerge Over Tisza Propaganda Publication

The December issue of Peter Magyar's propaganda paper raises serious concerns over violations of personal rights, including the possibility of defamation and slander.

Peter Magyar, leader of the Tisza Party (Photo: Balazs Hatlaczki)

The December issue of Tiszta Hang (Clear Voice)—the propaganda paper of Peter Magyar and the Tisza Party—contains numerous statements that may constitute grave infringements of personal rights, including defamation and slander. Remarkably, despite the publication being saturated with falsehoods and incitement to hatred, it concludes with a soft-focus interview in which Peter Magyar—who has been accused of domestic abuse by his former wife and his former partner—speaks at length about how the holidays are, for him, a time of family love. 

Tiszta Hang is pure propaganda, full of lies (Photo: Balazs Ladoczki)

A Nationwide Tour of Smiles—and Aggression

According to the propaganda paper distributed by the Tisza Party to voters’ mailboxes nationwide just before Christmas,

the Tisza Party’s national tour was a continuing story of smiles, handshakes, and brief conversations.

Reports from other media outlets on the tour, paint a very different picture. They make clear that the events were not limited to friendly encounters, but also included numerous hostile incidents involving participants and journalists—particularly those whom the Tisza Party leader labeled as linked to the government or who dared to express dissenting views. The eight-page Tisza-linked publication contains at least thirty false statements, distortions, and claims tantamount to defamation—each of which raises concerns over violations of personal rights.

As previously reported by Magyar Nemzet, 

attacks on journalists at Tisza events took multiple forms. Verbal abuse was common, with reporters shouted down or obstructed while attempting to do their jobs. In several cases, physical violence occurred, with participants shoving or striking members of the press.

Video evidence shows attempts to destroy recordings made on site or to prevent their publication. Supporters of the Tisza Party repeatedly harassed reporters from Hír TV, while party parliamentary candidate Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi was caught on camera knocking over a journalist. Peter Magyar himself explicitly threatened members of the media by invoking his so-called “Road to Prison” program, while regularly behaving in an arrogant and aggressive manner toward outlets he deemed pro-government. Most recently, journalists from Patriota and Index were escorted out of Tisza events by security guards.

Hate-Mongering That Raises the Specter of Defamation

The Christmas edition of Tiszta Hang also disseminates demonstrably false information about several media outlets—including this publication, as well as Index and Ripost—claiming that court rulings found they had “lied” when reporting on leaked Tisza program drafts detailing the party’s planned austerity measures.

The pamphlet further presents as fact the absurd and defamatory claim that the leaked program was “falsified by Orban’s people using artificial intelligence.”

The term “Orban’s people” appears repeatedly throughout the publication in statements that may themselves constitute violations of personal rights. Among them are insinuations—echoing the Tisza Party’s whisper campaign—that the prime minister and those around him “keep zebras in luxury palaces.” This crude defamation does not stop there. The pamphlet later claims that “Fidesz does not govern, it plunders,” that Hungarians’ money is spent on “personal luxury,” and that the “prime minister’s Hatvanpuszta mansion” has become “a symbol of the NER [the Orban administration and those linked to it]”—despite the well-known fact that the prime minister holds no ownership stake whatsoever in the referenced property.

Peter Magyar, accused of domestic violence, also talks about love of family (Photo: Balazs Ladoczki)
 

Sugar-Coated Hypocrisy and Claims of Modesty

As previously reported, the Tisza-linked publication contains numerous additional falsehoods, including claims that Hungarians have never experienced a more expensive Christmas than this year, or that Tisza politicians are “serious professionals” who do not live in luxury, understand everyday struggles, and courageously speak truth to power. Each of these assertions can be—and has been—systematically debunked.

Regarding lifestyle claims alone, this outlet has already detailed the strikingly luxurious properties owned by Peter Magyar’s political allies and by the party leader himself.

The hatred and defamation piled into Tiszta Hang ultimately dissolve into a saccharine closing interview, in which Peter Magyar—despite facing accusations of domestic abuse from his former wife and former partner—assures readers that Christmas, for him, is all about love of family.