Echo TV

Echo TV
Launched 2005
Owned by Echo Hungária TV Zrt.
Country Hungary
Website www.echotv.hu

Echo TV is a conservative Hungarian television channel owned and operated by Echo Hungária TV Zrt, and founded in 2005 to cover business news. Now focusing on news broadcasting and public affairs, Echo TV has received controversial attention for its association with far-right politics in Hungary.

Creation

Echo TV founded as a business news channel in 2005[1] at the initiative of Gábor Széles, one of Hungary's richest men and the head of Videoton Holding, a contract electronics manufacturer. Széles had only days previously purchased Hungary's daily Magyar Hírlap; the acquisition of both stations helped Széles establish a major media presence in Hungary.[2] Széles reportedly spent two billion Hungarian forints in creating Echo TV.[3]

In 2006 Echo TV became a media partner of Feratel media technologies AG, based in Austria.[4]

Association with far-right politics

According to Le Monde, Echo TV is a forum favored among neofascists in Hungary.[5]

After the 2010 election in Hungary, Echo TV displayed an image of Imre Kertész, a Hungarian survivor of Auschwitz and nobel laureate, alongside a voiceover about rats.[6] Sándor Pörzse was a well-known host for Echo TV before helping to found Jobbik's paramilitary organization the "Hungarian Guard," later banned by the Hungarian Government.[7] Sándor Pörzse was removed from the Echo TV in 2009.[8]

One of Echo TV's better known broadcasters is Ferenc Szaniszló, known for his racist and anti-Semitic statements.[5][9][10][11][12][13] In 2011, Hungary's media regulator fined Echo 500,000 Forints after Szaniszló compared Roma people to "monkeys".[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Rövidesen indul az ECHO TV". 3 June 2005.
  2. ↑ "Gábor Széles buys daily Magyar Hirlap". MTI Econews. 19 September 2005.
  3. ↑ "Széles to Start TV Channel". EASTBUSINESS.ORG. 1 December 2005.
  4. ↑ "Ots news: feratel media technologies AG". AWP OTS. 22 December 2006.
  5. 1 2 Stolz, Joelle (29 March 2012). "Prime au fascisme en Hongrie". M - Le Monde. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  6. ↑ "Budapest Experiences A New Wave of Hate". Spiegel Online International. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
  7. ↑ Oehmke, Philipp (16 December 2011). "Hungary's Right-Wing War on Culture". Spiegel Online International.
  8. ↑ http://index.hu/kultur/media/2011/03/20/ki_vedi_meg_az_echotv-t/
  9. ↑ http://www.budapesttimes.hu/2013/03/24/tancsics-prize-returned/
  10. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21834834
  11. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hungarian-government-awards-tancsics-prize-for-journalism-to-notorious-antisemite-ferenc-szaniszlo-8538178.html
  12. ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/hungarian-journalist-to-return-state-honor-denies-anti-semitism-1.511168
  13. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/20/us-hungary-journalist-idUSBRE92J0AD20130320
  14. ↑ "Hungary sparks outrage with honours for far-right figures". Agence France Presse. 17 March 2013.

External links


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