Several local journalists in the city of Subotica were neither invited nor given the opportunity to acquire accreditation for a ceremony at City Hall, where the Istvan Pasztor Foundation presented prizes to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Subotica-based reporters said the city’s media center failed to forward an official invitation, making accreditation impossible. Meanwhile, selected Belgrade-based outlets and certain local Hungarian-language media were granted access.
Margareta Tomo, a journalist with the Free Press Foundation who reports for the outlet Szabad Magyar Szo, said local journalists were turned away at the door because their names were not on the list.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen normally. We always get invitations. There have been occasions when some of us were left out, but for an event where two heads of state are meeting, it’s unprecedented that not all local journalists were invited,” Tomo said.
She stressed that every local journalist has the right to cover such events.
“There are suitable media and unsuitable ones, and suitable journalists and unsuitable ones. I would say it’s fear of possible questions. But where I’m not invited, I don’t force my way in,” she added.
The awards were presented to Vucic and Orban by Balint Pasztor, an MP and leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM), and his brother Abel Pasztor.
Also in attendance were the Vojvodina Assembly president Balint Juhasz, head of the Vojvodina government Maja Gojkovic, leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), SVM MP Elvira Kovacs, as well as representatives of the Hungarian and Serbian communities.
Source: N1
