Hungarian Camerawoman Fired For Abusing Migrants
A Hungarian camerawoman was fired Tuesday, after she was identified in videos kicking and tripping fleeing migrants. The images of the woman causing a man to fall with a small child have gone viral. Another cameraman with her seemed to be appalled over her actions.
The fired woman, who was using her camera to film for a private television company, was seen tripping the man and the child. The camerawoman could also be seen kicking a little girl as hundreds of migrants tried to escape capture by police. Many of them were Syrian refugees.
Some time later, the camerawoman was identified as as Petra Laszlo, by the Hungarian website 444.hu.
Images of the incident from the camerawoman’s perspective later appeared on N1TV, an internet-based TV station close to Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party. The scenes happened as hundreds of migrants broke through a police line at a collection point close to the Serbian border, where thousands have been crossing over each day for the past month. Footage shows the man holding the child and running towards the camerawoman. N1TV cuts away just as the trip occurs.
The camerawoman, Petra Laszlo, angered viewers. The outrage grew in intensity, as more people viewed her deliberate actions. That anger and resentment turned into a wall of shame on Facebook. The camerawoman’s page has gained over 20,000 likes, in a matter of hours. Social media is burning with images and opinions about the camerawoman and her actions.
In a statement reported by the New York Daily News, the internet station, also known as Nemzeti TV, was shamed into firing Laszlo. Editor-in-chief, Szabolcs Kisberk, talked about the incident.
“An N1TV colleague today behaved in an unacceptable way at the Roszke collection point. The camerawoman’s employment contract has been terminated with immediate effect as of today, we consider the matter closed.”
Over 150,000 migrants, many of them refugees from conflicts in the Middle East, have been recorded entering Hungary so far this year. Police have been trying to round them up and register them in line with European Union rules, but many migrants refuse, fearing that they will then be forced to stay in Hungary.
[Image via YouTube]
