BUDAPEST, Hungary — The Hungarian camera operator who was filmed in 2015 kicking migrants was banned Thursday from working in Hungary’s parliament after she insulted a lawmaker during an interview.
Parliament press chief Zoltan Szilagyi said in a statement that Petra Laszlo’s ban would be enforced for the rest of the legislative session that ends in mid-December.
In January, Laszlo was sentenced to three years’ probation for disorderly conduct after she was filmed kicking and trying to trip migrants on the border with Serbia in 2015.
Laszlo, who works for a pro-government website, could be seen on video arguing Monday with Gyorgy Szilagyi from the far-right Jobbik party in a parliament hallway.
Gyorgy Szilagyi refused to answer questions from pestisracok.hu, saying he considers them government “propagandists” and that he was surprised to see Laszlo working for them.
During the 2015 incident, Laszlo was working for N1TV, close to Jobbik, which quickly fired her.
Laszlo, who once said she and her family were considering moving to Russia because of her notoriety, apologized to the lawmaker for her improper remarks.
Gergely Huth, editor in chief of pestisracok.hu, issued a statement supporting Laszlo, and said that some media outlets expected her to be “eternally stigmatized and condemned far beyond the legal sanctions in the verdict” of her case.