In her CEU commencement address, Marton invoked the famous declaration by British editor C.P. Scott to underscore the vital distinction between opinion and truth. She had spent years fighting for journalist rights as the only real safeguard against demagogues and dictators. Marton's advocacy was deeply personal. Her own parents — distinguished Hungarian journalists — had been arrested by the Communist secret police and sentenced to long prison terms 'merely for the crime of being good reporters.' Speaking in Budapest, where her family had experienced firsthand the consequences of a state that feared facts, she reminded graduates that press freedom is the bedrock of democracy. Her words carried urgency as reporters from Damascus to Tehran were risking their lives to keep the world informed.