Monday, January 11, 2021

ASEEES Endorses Petition in Support of Peter Kreko

Published January 11, 2020

The Executive Committee of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) wishes to express its grave concern about the dangerous campaign of disinformation and defamation conducted by government-affiliated media in Hungary against political scientist Péter Krekó, the Executive Director of the Political Capital Institute in Budapest.  After Dr. Krekó criticized how the Hungarian government has been managing the COVID crisis, an intense campaign of media attacks was launched against him (over 100 articles so far), claiming falsely that he was seeking to undermine public health measures and the ongoing vaccination campaign. He and his family have received numerous death threats.  At ASEEES we endorse the petition being circulated in support of Dr. Krekó (available for signatures here) and we call upon those responsible for the campaign against him to stop immediately.  If there are counterarguments, they should be made instead of launching and/or condoning a smear campaign.  Allowing freedom of expression is the best method of encouraging trust in both governmental and nongovernmental sources.