The head of Hungary’s newly-merged telecom and media authority said on Wednesday that she planned fast and well-defined restructuring in the sector.
Annamaria Szalai was appointed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to head the National Media and Telecoms Authority (NMHH) for a nine-year term as of Wednesday.
In her introductory briefing, Szalai told the press that parliament was expected to pass the framework regulations or “media constitution” in September and details could be worked out soon after. She added that the new structure would become complete when members of the Media Council, to operate within the NMHH, are elected in the autumn.
Szalai said she envisaged a humanitarian media authority, run by top professionals. The new authority’s task is to protect the interests of the community, and this aim will govern her work, Szalai added.
Public service media will retain its professional independence, Szalai said. Chief executives of the new non-profit companies – which will be created from the state-owned radio broadcaster Magyar Radio, public television companies MTV and Duna TV, and the Hungarian News Agency MTI – will be appointed by a planned new Public Service Foundation in the autumn.
Six of the foundation’s board members will be elected by parliament, while one member and the chairman will be named by the head of the NMHH.
Szalai said she planned to create a Media Council which concerns itself with strategic issues, and which cannot be influenced by market players.
Hungary’s President Pal Schmitt on Tuesday signed a law on restructuring the public service media.
The main opposition Socialist Party, the green-liberal Politics Can Be Different (LMP) and the radical nationalist Jobbik party have voiced their concern over the law and said they would seek an opinion from the Constitutional Court.
In reaction to Szalai’s appointment LMP deputy group leader Gergely Karacsony said that public radio and television in Hungary were in serious danger. The new media control system can make public media into government mouthpieces, he added.
The new regulations make it impossible for the public media to operate independently from parties and governments, Karacsony said.
Deputy head of the main opposition Socialist Party Laszlo Kovacs said the new media law is in conflict with the principles of democracy and the freedom of the press, as well as with European regulations.
“Democracy cannot exist without the freedom of the press, which cannot exist without objective and impartial information supply, a basic condition of which is that the public media should be independent of the government, the parties and parliament,” Kovacs said. This principle is applied in all countries of the European Union, he added.
