“I’m seriously concerned about media freedom in Germany,” the Minister of State for International Communication and Relations posted on Facebook on Friday, commenting on the incident that developed in the wake of a statement concerning Hungary and Poland by German social democrat politician Katarina Barley, Vice President of the European Parliament.

In his post, Mr Kovács wrote the statement made by left-wing EP Vice President Katarina Barley created a great stir. In this she said Member States such as Poland and Hungary “must be financially starved”.

However, on Friday morning she told 24.hu that she had been misquoted, and that she had actually said that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán should be financially starved, the Minister of State pointed out.

“No apology, instead they changed the text of the interview. Well, this is absolutely genius. I’m seriously concerned about media freedom in Germany,” Mr Kovács said.

The German national public service radio Deutschlandfunk posted the following message on its news portal: “we tampered with Katarina Barley’s statement for dramatic effect”.

(MTI/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)