Almost a year ago Ambassador Gábor Kaleta, Hungary’s top diplomat to Peru was caught in a child porn case in Lima. 19,000 (!) images of violent child porn were found on the Embassy’s computers. Hungarian security officials quietly escorted the Ambassador back to Budapest and the cover-up almost succeeded.
A couple of days ago journalist András Dezső of index.hu published a piece about the strange disappearance of Ambassador Kaleta. Now the Orbán government admits that there is legal action against the ex-Ambassador.
Mr. Kaleta (left) with Mr. Miklós Bartsch, Hungary’s Honorary Consul in Sacramento, California
Hungary has no free press. News sources are tightly controlled by the Orbán government and news items that make the regime uncomfortable are re-written or suppressed.
The Ambassador was caught after Spanish Police broke up a global pedophile ring that shared “extremely violent” child porn. Graphic content included rape of children and babies as young as a few months old. The 26-month-long “Chemosh Operation” has been coordinated by the Spanish Central Cybercrime Unit in collaboration with Interpol, EUROPOL in Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, India, Italy, Pakistan, Peru, United Kingdom and Syria.
Kaleta is well-known in California especially in Catholic circles. Between 2007 and 2011 he served as Consul in Los Angeles. A devout Catholic, a graduate of the Benedictine High School of Pannonhalma and Pázmány Péter Catholic University, he was a frequent visitor at the Catholic Mission of Woodside, CA. He was also instrumental when Hungary recognized Fr. Maurus Németh a California monk with the Golden Cross award in 2009.
Mr. Kaleta (second from left), Rev. Gábor Magyari-Köpe (third from left), Auxiliary Bishop of Esztergom-Budapest Ferenc Cserháti (wearing a cross), Ft. Maurus Németh (holding his award), Ms. Eva Voisin, Hungary’s Honorary Consul in San Francisco (far right).
This case shows that Orbán loyalty pays in Hungary. Those who support his regime can count on protection; Budapest will cover-up illegal and even criminal activities.
György Lázár
This is hardly a cover-up, Foreign Affairs and the Prosecution did not advertise the case, but didn’t act to hide, deny or destroy information, afaik.
There is a problem, however, with the security clearance process, Kaleta was screened in 2017 and nothing was detected then or thereafter (until a foreigy agency shared the proofs). Quite a fail mark for the Hu security services.
The Hungarian government goes to extreme lengths to control the country’s media landscape. And especially in the printed press, it has largely succeeded. Nevertheless independent journalists continue to publish critical pieces, investigative journalism included, in much-read online media. So it does seem a little odd to state categorically that “Hungary has no free press” and “news sources are tightly controlled by the Orbán government and news items that make the regime uncomfortable are re-written or suppressed” when the very sentence before clarifies that you are reporting damaging revelations by a Hungarian journalist on a Hungarian news site (neither re-written nor suppressed).
We must find a way to articulate the government’s relentless attacks on media freedom without pretending there are not still widely-read independent media where good journalists do an important job.
Kaleta Gábor a Medgyessy- és Gyurcsány-kormányok idején is komoly beosztású diplomata, sőt, konzul volt. Nem beszélve arról, hogy a teljes külügyi bizottság ellenzékestül egyhangúlag támogatta Kaleta kinevezését, köztük Gyöngyösi Márton, Mesterházy Attila és Demeter Márta is.
LG
So?
Kaleta was screened by the security services in 2017, this is the point.
Dear Observer,
That is wrong. “10 évre titkosították a Kaleta-ügyről tett beszámolót”
Mike
Correct, it’s a step to limit the info, but I’m not sure if this makes it a cover-up, particularly in comparison with much worse cases, eg. the Paks agreements.
“Hungary has no free press. News sources are tightly controlled by the Orbán government and news items that make the regime uncomfortable are re-written or suppressed.”
So, Nepszava is controlled by Orban? I ask this because one can read plenty of negative articles against Hungary’s current government on that site! There are many others as well.
I would say that it is most of the Western World which has no free media. Cover-up? NGO
CEO of Advocates Abroad admitted in a secret recording that her NGO coached tens of thousands of migrants to lie in order to qualify for asylum.
https://www.reddit.com/r/samharris/comments/9x2zt6/advocates_abroad_ceo_ariel_ricker_describing_how/
Most Western MSM completely ignored the story, even though it is hard to argue that the implications are not newsworthy. Among other things, her organization may have helped countless ISIS members to lie in order to get asylum. Something that could affect security in EU for decades to come. Also immigration continues to be one of the top issues on the minds of the EU electorate, therefore hard to argue irrelevance. So where is the Western “free press”???
Joe
Pls don’t try to convince us that pigs fly in Orbanistan.
I think he try to convince us that pigs fly for Orbanistan.