Hungarian journalist loses House of Terror libel case

The Municipal Court on Tuesday reprimanded Népszava editor Péter Németh after he lost a libel suit against Mária Schmidt, director of the House of Terror museum. The court ruled that Németh abetted crime by publishing an article written by the late writer István Eörsi in 2004.

Eörsi had described Schmidt as "the most morally depraved figure on the right wing of public life," as "a businesswoman specialised in falsifying history" and "a business intellectual party lackey."

Eörsi was angered by Schmidt's response to a Holocaust survivor, who had in turn been upset when a German historian who visited the House of Terror said that the Nazis had acted humanely as their victims died in 40 seconds in the gas chambers. The survivor said those who hold such views should try the "humane" procedure themselves, to which Schmidt said that anyone who sends others to a gas chamber is a Nazi.

The court at the same time acquitted Zoltán Kovács, editor of the weekly Élet és Irodalom over another article by Eörsi.

The above story is just one of more than two dozen published today by Hungary Around the Clock, the most comprehensive source of daily English-language news about Hungary. For a free trial of HATC, click here. Hungarian news sources include Népszabadság; Magyar Hírlap; Világgazdaság; Napi Gazdaság; Magyar Nemzet; Népszava; Kossuth Rádió news and Hungarian television's nightly news broadcast.

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