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News > World

Hungary: Court Aquits Journalist Who Tripped, Kicked Migrants

  • Laszlo made headlines for a man carrying a child as well as trying to trip or kicking other migrants.

    Laszlo made headlines for a man carrying a child as well as trying to trip or kicking other migrants. | Photo: Reuters FILE

Published 1 November 2018
Opinion

On Tuesday, the top court overturned a lower court decision which initially laid charges of a criminal offense and recommended that the journalist is slapped with a three-year probation period.

On Tuesday, the Hungarian Supreme Court acquitted camerawoman Petra Laszlo, who had been recorded tripping and kicking migrants as they attempted to cross the country’s border with Serbia, in 2015.   

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"The video reporter was acquitted owing to the lack of a violation," a statement from the court said, adding that consideration was given to "an assault by several hundred migrants fleeing a police intervention." 

The top court overturned a 2017 lower court decision which had laid charges of a criminal offense and recommended that the journalist is slapped with a three-year probation period.

Laszlo made headlines and elicited global outrage after a viral video showed the camerawoman trip a man carrying a child as well as trying to trip or kicking other migrants.

"While morally incorrect and illicit, was a disruption, not vandalism," the court expressed about the journalist’s actions but stated that a lesser misdemeanor charge would have been better suited.

“I turned and saw several hundred people charging toward me, it was quite incredibly frightening,” Laszlo said, adding that she was “truly sorry” and was not a “heartless, racist children-kicking camerawoman.” 

Laszlo was fired after videos and images showing the incident surfaced.

The statue of limitation has run out on the incident.

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