Video: Hungarian Journalist Who Kicked Refugees Apologizes

By R. Siva Kumar - 14 Sep '15 09:31AM

Recently, 40-year-old Petra Laszlo, a Hungarian camerawoman who worked for a far-right leaning news company, was fired for kicking and tripping fleeing Syrian migrants. Her company, N1TV, terminated her for her actions.

N1TV is known for supporting the Jobbik political party, which opposes immigration.

Explaining her conduct, Petra responded that the migrants escaping the police officers in southern Hungary rushed toward her.

"I was scared as the crowd rushed toward me, and then something snapped in me," Laszlo said in a letter to the newspaper Magyar Nemzet, according to the New York Daily News. "I'm not a heartless, racist, children-kicking camerawoman."

"I do not deserve the political witch hunts against me, nor the smears or often the death threats," she added. "I'm just a woman, and now an unemployed mother of small children, who made a bad decision in a situation of panic. I am truly sorry."

As the video has gone viral on the internet, there are respondents who have put up angry reactioins, with the Petra Laszlo Shame Wall getting nearly 8,000 likes after the post was put up n September 9.

Petra has tried to defend herself after that. The following was posted by Petra Laszlo on her Shame Wall on Thursday, September 10, 2015:

"With the camera in my hands, I didn't see who was coming toward me. I just thought they were on the attack and I had to defend myself. It's hard to make good decisions when one is panicking," she wrote, according to USA Today.

However, the various videos of the Syrian migrants trying to enter Hungarian territory while they were on their way to Austria and Germany seem to be showing her in a fairly poor light. In the first video that emerged, Laszlo was seen tripping an old man carrying a young child in his arms. In the second one, the camerawoman can be seen deliberately kicking other refugees, including a young girl.

"I am very sorry for the incident, and as a mother I am especially sorry for the fact that fate pushed a child in my way. I did not see that at that moment. I started to panic and as I re-watch the film, it seems as if it was not even me," she added in her letter.

The Public Prosecutor's Office of Szeged is now looking into further probes that will show her committing serious offences, if need be, according to hngn.