Hi! I’m Jakab from Hungary. I work at Hungary’s most viewed left wing media, called Partizán. We upload videos on a daily basis including my own series called Monoszkóp. In my videos I covered generational differences in media, pop culture, and also between green activists. Me and my colleagues are trying to emphasize values like solidarity, human rights and sustainable economy. Also providing opportunities to marginalized or exploited groups in Hungary, like ethnic minorities, protesting teachers or factory workers.
I’m sure that Finland has a lot of good practices and solutions for the problems that strike my country. After the third re-election of Viktor Orban and his right wing government I think it’s more important than ever to oppose culture racism in this so-called: ‘illiberal democracy.’ I witnessed personally how the government privatized the University of Theater and Film Arts of Hungary -where I studied- and gave it to people who are close to the ruling party. This move made us students protest for months last year. I only took a small part in it, but it teached me how important it is to stand up for our values. I deeply believe that diversity in thoughts, cultures, and worldviews are good, and helps us to be a better society. Maybe it’s harder, but maybe this indicates that this is the good way.
I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to gain a first hand experience of how a well-balanced social-democracy works, and on top of that to meet people from all around the world, with different experiences and backgrounds. I’m really looking forward to meet all of the participants and to share ideas, stories and last but not least, professional knowledge in journalism. Me and my colleagues in Partizan are all trying to find new ways to communicate, educate, and entertain. Mixing journalism with political activism, and vlogging. I think that the mainstream media needs some new ideas, and I’m very curious about how it works in different countries. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to travel a lot (It will be my first visit to Finland as well) therefore most of my knowledge is from English/American media but now I’m most curious what are the commonalities and differences about the way we do the same job.
Hungarian linguists often mention the Finno-Ugric language group. This theory claims that the Finnish and the Hungarian languages are related, therefore we might have some common origins near the mountain Ural. I’m definitely not a linguist but I hope that will also help to find Finland as snug and friendly as it seems. Thanks again for having me in the program, I’m really looking forward to be there!