Parliament votes on amendments to media law package

Hungary’s Parliament on Monday voted on amendments to a media law package put forward by two deputies of the Fidesz centre-right government. One part of the package has been postponed until the autumn.

Fidesz deputies say the package will reform “the currently dysfunctional public-service media sector” and make the system cheaper to operate. The Fidesz-Christian-Democratic governing alliance holds the two-thirds of parliamentary mandates needed to change the outdated media law enacted in 1996. The system it established for regulating the media was widely seen as over-politicised and ineffective. For example, it often failed to fulfil its remit of electing leaders to the public-service bodies.

Opposition parties, unions and civil organisations strongly criticised parts of the new package, however, saying it would hand overwhelming power to the governing party delegates in the new supervisory bodies. They also complain that the package was rushed through without a proper period of consultation. The package’s proponents partially addressed these objections by postponing the codification of regulations of content to the autumn while pressing ahead, however, with important aspects of the bills covering the regulatory structure.

Criticism focused on a new body called the Media Council – a powerful body operating within a new authority which merges the national radio and television authority ORTT and the telecom authority NHH – whose members will be appointed for a nine-year term. Its head is to be appointed by the prime minister, despite an objection raised both by opposition parties and two Fidesz deputies.

The four other members of the Council will be appointed by a parliamentary committee comprising one member from each party initially aiming for a consensus, but lacking that, by a two-thirds majority. This procedure will mean the governing parties will control the body. One amendment, however, raises the number of members of the Public-Service Presidium to eight members from five; the governing and opposition parties will provide three members each while the Media Council will delegate two members. This means that each of the opposition parties will be able to nominate a member.

Another amendment raises the number of delegates to the public-service body comprising civil delegates from 12 to 14. This body is to be made up of people nominated by social organisations such as the Academy of Sciences and the churches. Its job will be to verify that public-service broadcasters fulfil the terms of a public-service code (to be formulated later), and it can recommend the dismissal of the broadcasters’ leaders.

The package also provides for the establishment of an asset-management body to manage public-media assets. The broadcasting organisations – television networks MTV and Duna, Magyar Radio and news agency MTI – are to be converted into non-profit companies and will still be kept separate but supervised by a single public-service presidium as opposed to the four separate bodies up to now. The opposition Socialists have objected to the provision to merge the supervision of MTI with the public media companies. A party official said that merging control over MTI with public radio and television was a convenient way of placing the company under government control. Under current provisions, MTI is governed by a separate law and has its own supervisory council.

The part the package dubbed “media constitution” will codify regulations on media content. The bill’s proponents have postponed a vote and debate on this part until the autumn, to provide time for consultation with professional bodies, unions and the opposition. It is then that the government will enact a new media law. One amendment approved on Monday restores the term “right to freedom of opinion” in addition to the new term “right to freedom of speech” in the constitution.