Witnesses had described terrifying scenes of women running the gauntlet of groping hands, lewd insults and robberies in the mob violence. (AFP photo)
Hungarian public media was accused by an independent news site Tuesday of using video footage of a sexual attack in Cairo in a report of the New Year's Eve violence against women in Germany.
Below a headline reading "shocking footage of the Cologne molestation", an article said that "a group of migrants surround a blond woman who calls for help in vain".
"The footage was made on New Year's Eve in Cologne, and appeared a short time ago on one of the biggest video sharing sites," the article continued.
The clip appeared on a news bulletin on the M1 public TV channel Tuesday as well as on the hirado.hu news site run by the public service broadcaster MTVA.
The privately-owned Index.hu news site later reported however that a reader had sent it a video uploaded to the YouTube site on June 30, 2013, titled "Dutch tourist raped in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt" that appears to have been used by MTVA.
MTVA have yet to react to the news site's allegation or respond to an AFP request for clarification.
The claim comes two days after an M1 news programme accused German media of manipulation and biased reporting of the violence in Cologne.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's hardline anti-migrant government has also criticised German media for its coverage of the attacks.
"The press is more free in central Europe than in western Europe," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Monday.