The new regulation of Hungary's public-service media seeks to improve output, and large-scale lay-offs are not on the agenda, a top Fidesz media official has said.

Annamaria Szalai, the Fidesz centre-right governing party's delegate to the national radio and television authority (ORTT) said in an interview with public television broadcast on Tuesday that quality should be improved through greater efficiencies.

"I don't think that people working for the public media should be made to leave their jobs in large numbers; what we want to see is more efficient work and improved quality," she said, adding that the number of managerial positions would be reduced.

Szalai said that the media package outlines a scenario in which national news agency MTI has a "more valued and enhanced" role while public television networks have clear profiles with increased civil control over the sector.

Concerning MTI, Szalai said that the news agency's activities were "rather tight" in scope and that it was working in an "unreasonably isolated" way. MTI's news output using public funds should be provided free of charge, because taxpayers "have paid the price already," she added.

The government's plan to "reinforce" public television, radio, and content providers is obvious, Szalai said.

Hungary's Duna Television, a satellite channel under the control of parliament, should be made a television channel for the whole of the Carpathian Basin and its programmes should reflect the needs of ethnic Hungarian communities, Szalai added.