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Top award for Hungarian ‘hate’ journalist

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Israel’s ambassador to Hungary has called on the government to revoke an award given to an allegedly antisemitic TV presenter last Friday.

Ferenc Szaniszlo, who works for the privately-owned Echo TV, was presented with Hungary’s top journalism prize, the Tancsics Award.

Mr Szaniszlo reportedly once said on his show that Gypsies are monkeys and implied that Jews and Roma have carried out anti-Hungarian activities.

He has also allegedly claimed that Israel was established by the West to undermine Arab-Muslim nations and calls has described himself as an “anti-szemét”, a term which in Hungarian literally means “anti-garbage” but can be understood to be a wordplay on “antiszemita” — antisemitic.

This week, Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor called on the government to withdraw the award “given to the wrong person for very wrong reasons” and accused Mr Szaniszlo of “spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories against Israel”. Mr Szaniszlo denies allegations of antisemitism and said he would not surrender the award.

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