An important change occurred in Hungary’s foreign media perception last year, which stemmed from the work completed by the Government since 2010, Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács stated at a press conference held on Thursday in Budapest to present the Nézőpont Institute survey entitled “Hungary in the World Press, 2014”, analysing 99 press products from 13 countries around the world.

Based on macro-data, „the structure of the Hungarian economic model has finally gained its meaning”, everything is falling into place; the figures measured on a macro-economic level cast light on the meaning of the measures adopted by the Orbán Government, which may even result in Hungary’s upgrading by the international credit rating agencies, he said. Among the expected news items concerning Hungary over the period to come, the Government Spokesperson mentioned issues of economic and energy policy and the questions of economic and illegal immigration.

In contrast to the image of the country presented in opposition press as a “living hell”, “there is another truth” which presents a highly trendy image to the world outside, furthermore the satisfaction indicator of tourists coming to Hungary is also very high, he said.

One of the ambitions of the last few months was “to make ourselves, and perhaps, every member of the Government in office, realise that anything we say in Hungary becomes international news instantaneously"; in other words, we must pay attention to ensuring that the messages relayed here should be fit for immediate construction abroad as well, and there should be no need for subsequent justification. As an example of misconstruction, Mr Kovács mentioned the Prime Minister’s speech delivered in Tusnádfürdő; however, he also remarked that in the context of economic policy the Government is able to express its messages precisely.

According to the latest analysis of Nézőpont Institute, which was the third one in the series, the perception of Hungary “became more objective” in the media surveyed last year. The percentage of reports with a neutral media approach increased from 63.7 to 71.8 per cent, the ratio of negative coverage decreased from 29.5 to 24.5 per cent, while the percentage of positive media reports declined from 6.7 to 3.8 per cent.

István Törteli, senior media analyst of Nézőpont Institute said that the survey completed for the third time examined 7,466 items. Items in the largest numbers - 904 – were released in April, and were mostly concerned with the parliamentary elections. However, in October, at the time of the municipal elections, a variety of topics dominated foreign news coverage concerning Hungary.

The Austrian, Slovak, Romanian and Polish press covered topics related to Hungary in the largest numbers; in Austria, news concerning the Hungarian banking system, while in Slovakia, topics related to general economic issues were in the focus of attention, he said.

The most discussed topics last year – with 1,937 media reports – were related to Hungary’s foreign relations and external economic ties, while 957 reports covered the issue of constitutionality, the number one issue of 2013. The highest number of positive news items were released on the news portal of the Slovak SME, while negative articles on Hungary were published in the largest percentage by two Austrian media outlets, the newspapers Der Standard and Die Presse.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)