Our partner in Hungary, Centre for Independent Journalism, held a workshop in Hungary for 20 journalists. The workshop was titled "Deception, misinformation and the impact – use of journalistic language” and focussed on the topic of manipulative language. Specifically, the workshop covered the Hungarian media and political landscape, which is heavily influenced by emotive and manipulative language. It has come to a point where now even the independent press is taking over the language used by Orbán and his government. 

Sometimes online hate speech hits the comment sections rather unexpectedly, but most of the time it follows an established pattern. One example is news articles about the Arab-Israeli conflict that usually lead to a wave of antisemitism. It does not even need to be coverage of the actual military conflict. Even Israeli culture and music can serve as a canvas for bigotry, as an example from May revealed yet again. 

The French conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles published a series of articles focused on George Soros, where he is described as “the billionaire conspiring against France”. In the 16-page long piece, published on 10 May 2018, three journalists link George Soros to the financing of a number of illegal activities, including “supporting terrorism” and “world disorder”. 

The prominence given to immigration in domestic Hungarian politics since 2015 has surprised migration experts. It took a particularly distinct form in the period leading up to the general election in April 2018, when migration was placed centre-stage, albeit presented in a distorted, negative way, in the government-controlled media such as the Hungarian news website Origo (origo.hu). We never thought that we would witness such a clear example of moral panic.

A rise in antisemitism in Germany has been making headlines lately, and we’re giving you a condensed overview of what has been happening.

Years ago, Origo used to be the leading news site in Hungary. In February 2016, Origo was acquired by investors with ties to the government, and since then, the once high-quality news portal has increasingly turned into a pro-government propaganda outlet. As a result, Origo now publishes articles spreading hatred against migrants in many ways and many forms. On 13 March 2018, the front page of Origo used the word 'migrant' 12 times, always in negative contexts, such as violence, terrorism, war, and threat.

How does the way we frame news intersect with the world of politics? To learn more, we talked to the team behind Talk Decoded, a blog about the power of language in politics: expert in media, politics, and communication Anna Szilagyi and cartoonist Joy Lau.

Standing up against antisemitism in Europe has never been an easy task. In the age when a number of tectonic changes are shaking the nature of public communication, when people get the news from their social feed engineered by Facebook, and in the age when facts do not work – as PR strategists behind Trump and Brexit campaigns claim –  monitoring media discourse seems likely to get limited results. “Not at all”, says Giulia Dessi, the coordinator of “Get the Trolls Out”. This project uncovered examples and provides insights into the use of antisemitic rhetoric that not fully reveal patterns, trends and resonance in society, but are sufficient to take action against antisemitic talk.

The Action and Protection Foundation commissioned the Medián Public Opinion and Market Research Institute to study antisemitic prejudice in Hungarian society. One of the conclusions of the study was that nearly one-third of the population hold anti-Semitic views.