Hungary’s media law is no longer an issue in Hungarian-US relations, Hungarian Ambassador to the US Gyorgy Szapary told reporters in Washington on Wednesday at a working breakfast.
Previously, state secretary for communication Zoltan Kovacs and the ambassador informed senior State Department officials that Hungary had amended the media law in line with the technical complaints of the European Union.
“We have dispelled the State Department’s concerns about the media law,” said Szapary.
Kovacs said the law followed the continental model of media regulation and its components could be found in similar laws of other countries.
Concerning the ongoing drafting of Hungary’s new constitution, the state secretary said that Hungary is the only CEE country which has not adopted a new supreme law since the region’s return to democracy two decades ago.
Kovacs said the Hungarian EU presidency paid keen attention to Roma policy, which it considered a key issue of European dimensions.
Kovacs said the Budapest-based Tom Lantos Institute, scheduled to open in late April, would have an important role in managing the problems of the Roma minority on a European scale. He noted that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also been invited to the ceremony.
Concerning Libya, the state secretary said that Hungary remained the only EU member state not to close its Tripoli Embassy, which is prepared to represent US interests as well.
He reiterated that Hungary did not participate in military operations in Libya and was ready to provide humanitarian aid for its population.
Call me cynical, but I think the US State Dept saying they had no problem with the Media Law would carry more weight than the words of an Orbanista poodle.