Lili Bayer – @Lilliebayer
Lili Bayer, an American-Israeli-Hungarian reporter, has long sent dispatches from a country seen as slipping dangerously to the far right and where the place of minorities is increasingly in question. Politico Europe’s former Budapest correspondent, her coverage of Hungary’s increasingly anti-democratic government put her on a “foreign propagandists” list. A state-run site was irked at her coverage of the treatment of George Soros, the Hungarian-Jewish billionaire who has been so lambasted by government propaganda campaigns that some have accused Prime Minister Viktor Orban of anti-Semitism.
Bayer made headlines through countless pieces for the Forward in which she gracefully covered the difficulties of both Jewish and Roma life in Hungary — where many local Jews see anti-Semitism as a problem — and Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka’s alleged ties to a pro-Nazi Hungarian group.
Now a more general reporter for Politico Europe, Bayer tweets on a variety of topics: Israeli action in Syria, the IDF’s controversial new policy toward journalists, the Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube’s involvement in Hungary’s 2018 election and much more.
As Central Europe’s troubling anti-democratic trend continues, Bayer’s Twitter feed remains indispensable.
