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Several journalists have returned their Táncsics prizes in protest of the government's decision to give the state's highest journalism award to TV presenter Ferenc Szaniszló, who has made numerous anti-Roma and anti-Semitic remarks during his broadcasts. Szaniszló, a commentator for the government-friendly station Echo TV, has described the Roma as “parasitic ape-like people” and blamed the loss of Hungary's Battle of Mohács in 1526 on Jewish bankers. The government also awarded state prizes to singer János Petrás of the far-right music group Kárpátia, considered the “house band” of Hungary's extreme-right Jobbik party, and to archaeologist Kornél Bakay, who claims that Jews organised the slave trade during the Middle Ages.

Hungarian lawmakers on Monday passed a package of controversial amendments to the country's Constitution that opponents say weakens democratic checks and balances and violates the rule of law. The Fourth Amendment puts into law numerous measures that were introduced by the center-right Government and later annulled as unconstitutional by Hungary's Supreme Court. The amendment, which contains more than 20 articles, includes a provision that could restrict commercial media from running political-campaign advertising during elections that was struck down by the top court in January for violating freedom of expression. The amendment has also reinstated previously overturned laws restricting the powers of the country's Constitutional Court and the independence of the judiciary.