Parliament in Budapest tightens media law
In Hungary, the controversial media law has been tightened. The parliament in Budapest approved a bill to that effect late Monday evening. As a result, private TV and radio stations are facing increased pressure.
For example, they are no longer allowed to apply for broadcasting frequencies if they are in debt to the powerful media authority NMHH. These debts can be fees or fines. According to the law passed at the end of December 2010, the NMHH can also impose fines for unpopular editorial content.
In addition, a new regulation allows the NMHH to decide each year which state TV and radio stations will continue to be operated. The right-wing nationalist governing party FIDESZ justified this with possible funding problems.
The news production of the state TV stations MTV and Duna-TV, the radio station and the news agency MTI was already centralized last year and placed under the umbrella of a so-called "news center".
A wave of redundancies is currently underway in the state media. Journalists and technicians are planning to demonstrate against these measures in Budapest this Wednesday. The police union plans to join the protest.
Around 550 of the 2000 or so employees at the state media have already received their redundancy notices. A further 1000 or so editors and technicians are to lose their jobs in the fall. (sda)
