no MMA!

Around 4,000 Hungarians rallied in Budapest on Sunday against Prime Minister Viktor Orban, branding their leader a dictator after his right-wing government passed a highly controversial change to the constitution.
Protesters carried EU and opposition party flags and held banners dubbing the prime minister “Viktator”.
The rally, which was organised by civil group Milla (short for “One Million for Press Freedom in Hungary”), was moved from Friday, Hungary’s national day, when snowstorms paralysed much of the country.
Orban came under fire at home and abroad earlier this week for steering through parliament a constitutional amendment which opponents say contravenes civil rights and accelerates an attack on democratic structures begun by Orban’s party since it came to power in 2010.
Philosopher and activist Gaspar Miklos Tamas said that “the basic components of democracy and constitutionality in Hungary have been broken”.

Gulf-times

Thousands protested in Budapest on Sunday against constitutional changes by the center-right government. They were also testing their new opposition alliance against Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Together 2014.

“It’s a 1989 moment,” says Eva Kertesz as she opens the iron barred doors leading to the rooms of Milla, the organization aiming to gather one million Facebook supporters for press freedom in Hungary. The mention of “1989” is a reference to Hungary’s overthrowing of communism. Kertesz likens the current Orban government to autocratic regimes of the past which, like communism, she believes need to be overthrown.

DW

The Government of Hungary’s decision to award a national prize to Ferenc Szaniszlo, an individual who has publicly engaged in hate speech, is deeply disappointing.  Honoring those who espouse intolerance, along with the government’s failure to decisively condemn racist remarks by a founding member of its own political party, casts a shadow over positive steps the government has taken to combat racism and hate speech.  It is highly regrettable that according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Human Resources, the government has not yet found a way to revoke this troubling award.

USA Nagykövetség

Hungary’s right-wing government faced fierce criticism today for awarding its top state journalism prize to a television presenter notorious for spreading Jewish conspiracy theories and describing the country’s Roma minority as “human monkeys”.

Media reports from Budapest said the government of conservative premier Viktor Orban had awarded Hungary’s annual Tancsics prize – the country’s highest journalistic award – to Ferenc Szaniszlo, a presenter for the pro-government Echo TV channel.

The Independent