The Hungarian Constitution Protection Office has initiated a national security investigation into the opposition news portal Magyar Hang and opposition leader Péter Magyar over their dissemination of a false news story alleging that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was staying in Hungary.
‘The competent authorities are taking all necessary steps to prevent the spread of such fake news and to mitigate the associated risks,’ the Government Information Centre stated. ‘The fake news published in the Hungarian press and by Péter Magyar—which remains accessible on his Facebook-page—has the potential to endanger Hungary’s security,’ the statement continued.
It added that such serious disinformation could pose a national security risk and increase the terrorist threat in Hungary.
As reported by Hungarian Conservative, Bashar al-Assad fled Syria over the weekend after rebels led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured Damascus, effectively ending his rule. For some time, the Syrian president’s whereabouts were unknown, but it has since been confirmed that he has travelled to Moscow, where he has been granted asylum.
However, the imagination of the Hungarian opposition media and politicians immediately ran wild, with Magyar Hang publishing the fake news report of the year. On Sunday morning, the outlet claimed in a headline that Assad and his family had landed at Budapest Airport on Saturday evening aboard a Syrianair flight. To support the story, they included a photo of the Syrianair plane, allegedly taken by a reader.
The problem, however, is that the photo was neither taken at Liszt Ferenc International Airport nor in 2024. According to a 2012 report by Al Jazeera, the plane in the photo was en route from Moscow to Damascus when it was intercepted and forced to land by the Turkish air force.
Both Budapest Airport and the Hungarian government swiftly denied the allegations. In a statement issued on Sunday morning, the airport emphasized that it had neither received nor served any aircraft bearing the Syrian flag. ‘These types of statements and rumours have the potential to undermine public confidence in Budapest Airport,’ the statement read.
The fake news claim was quickly picked up by Péter Magyar, leader of the largest opposition party, the Tisza Party, the opposition’s newest political messiah. In a lengthy post, Magyar levelled harsh accusations against the government, basing his claims on Magyar Hang’s false report, which even the outlet later acknowledged was incorrect.
‘We demand that the government disclose what support Viktor Orbán has provided in recent years, and especially in the past week, to the fallen Syrian dictator, whose hands are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. We demand full transparency about who arrived in Budapest from Syria on the secret plane last night,’ Magyar wrote in the post which is still available in his page.
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