Panyi Miklós, a Fidesz member of parliament and former state secretary, apologised on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon for a post he published the previous morning to commemorate the officers executed on 6 October 1849. During editing of the image used in the post, errors were introduced into the list of names and three entries that do not appear in historical records were displayed.
"I hereby wish to apologise for my post yesterday morning placed in honour of the officers executed on 6 October 1849," Panyi wrote. He added that he did not want to attribute the mistake to inattention or other circumstances, calling such explanations irrelevant, and said the post was unworthy of the heroes and the national day of mourning. He emphasised that nineteenth-century Hungarian history has been close to his heart since childhood, and said he would draw lessons from the incident so that it cannot happen again.
According to available reports, Panyi likely intended to share a tableau based on a work by Barabás Miklós that also appears on the Arad Martyrs' Wikipedia page. During editing, however — partly because the original print's text is difficult to read — three incorrect names appeared in the shared image: Pötterbing Ödön, Ormányi Károly and Greviczy Károly. These names are not among the Arad Martyrs. The name Pötterbing Ödön appears to be a corruption of Poeltenberg Ernő, while the entries Ormányi Károly and Greviczy Károly likely resulted from confusion caused by the abbreviation "Grf." (for gróf, count) that precedes names such as Leiningen-Westerburg Károly and Vécsey Károly on the original lithograph.
Panyi deleted the erroneous post on Wednesday. Commentators noted that the politician apparently failed to fact-check material generated or modified with the help of artificial intelligence or image editing before posting.
He was not the only public figure to be tripped up by AI-modified imagery: other right-wing influencers also shared images of the Arad Martyrs that contained more conspicuous errors.
The incident highlights the risk that automated or semi-automated editing of images and text can introduce inaccuracies, particularly on historical remembrance days when precision and respect are especially important.
Dates and key facts
- The Arad Martyrs were executed on 6 October 1849.
- Panyi Miklós issued his apology and deleted the post on Wednesday.
(Summary based on Panyi's public statement and contemporary reports.)
