Representatives of the press, radio and television have been invited to present their views on the new media law package at Wednesday’s meeting of parliament’s cultural and press committee.
Parliament’s homepage on Tuesday also carried an invitation to representatives of several professional press organisations, newspaper dailies and weeklies, news portals, the Hungarian Radio Public Foundations and the Hungarian Television Public Foundation, as well as trade-unions delegates.
Pal Eotvos, head of the Association of Hungarian Journalists, told MTI that it not been made clear whether the situation of public media would be on the agenda of the meeting.
“Regarding the regulations on the operation of public media, the main question is whether the parliamentary majority will have the self-restraint to acknowledge the opinions of others — those outside their sphere of influence,” Eotvos said.
He also expressed his concerns about requirements included in the media bill concerning content provided by non-public media, such as balanced reporting and the mandatory supply of information.
Several professional organisations have reaised objections to the media package submitted by governing Fidesz party MPs Andras Cser-Palkovics and Antal Rogan. The Press Freedom Club insisted that the media package submitted by the two Fidesz deputies heralded a return to single-party direct control of the sector.
Parliament voted on amendments to a media law package put forward by two deputies of the Fidesz centre-right government on Monday. 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The Fidesz-Christian-Democratic governing alliance holds the two-thirds of parliamentary mandates needed to change the outdated media law enacted in 1996.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.
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.
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.
