Brussels, 24/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The new Hungarian law which makes the provision of “balanced” coverage of national and European events compulsory, was described on Monday 24 January by Jonathan Todd (the spokesman for Digital Agenda Commissioner Kroes) as disproportionate and a possible encroachment on the freedom of expression principle. He explained that this provision may possibly breach the Treaty's general rules, including Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. On Friday 21 January, the European Commission sent a second letter to the Hungarian authorities, which now have two weeks to respond to the Commission's concerns. As announced, the Commission intends to seek further clarification on three possible areas of contention at this stage: the application of the law on media registered in other countries, which might contravene the country of origin principle; the obligation of media registration to the written press; and the obligation of providing “balanced” coverage of national and European events, when this is kind of potentially restrictive obligation, “generally only concerns television viewers”, explained the spokesman last Friday. If these three questions are not given an appropriate response by Budapest, it could lead to the opening of infringement procedures. On Sunday, the Hungarian government said that it considered this letter as containing exclusively “technical” questions.
The spokesman for Viviane Reding (responsible for fundamental rights) was again keen to point out on Monday night the primary competence of Kroes in this affair was to assess whether the principles contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights are being respected on the basis of the directive on audiovisual services. In response to criticism of the Luxembourg commissioner for her failure to take a position on this subject, Matthew Newman, her spokesman, explained that Reding does not have a remit on this directive and therefore does not have a legal basis in her portfolio, which limits her room for manoeuvre. (S.P./transl.fl)