Orban to Lauder: 'You're asking me to limit press freedom'

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a letter to Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, expressed his "surprise" that the WJC leader had asked him "to limit freedom of speech and the freedom of the press" by calling on him to condemn an image that recently appeared on the cover of business weekly Figyelo, which Lauder had called anti-Semitic. In the letter forwarded to MTI by Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister's press chief, Orban wrote that "despite my respect for you, I cannot fulfil such a request". Hungary's government "pursues a policy of zero tolerance regarding anti-Semitism," Orban wrote. The government's actions "leave no doubt" that it feels responsible for Hungary's Jewish citizens and works to guarantee their security, he added. He reassured Lauder that the WJC could continue to count on Hungary's zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism.