Brussels, 25/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Four days after a further request for clarification was sent on 21 January by Commissioner Neelie Kroes to the Hungarian authorities on the new law on the media, a spokesperson to the Hungarian government, quoted by the Hungarian press, stated on Monday evening that Budapest would answer the Commission within “a week”.
The spokesperson, Anna Nagy, denied however that the Hungarian law had been called into question over a possible infringement of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. In her letter, the Dutch Commissioner raised three points which she feels could be problematic with European law, and for the first time officially mentioned a possible contradiction of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the principle of freedom of expression as regards the obligation on all the audiovisual media, including videos on demand over the internet, to provide “balanced coverage” of events. The absence of criteria to justify extending this to all kinds of audiovisual media, apart from broadcasters, seems to raise issues of proportionality, Kroes notes, and to run counter to the principles of the directive on audiovisual services. Generally, Kroes continues, the extension of this obligation of balanced cover, which is vague on details and opens up “a lot of room for interpretation”, may damage the freedom of establishment and freedom to provide media services for companies registered in other countries, which could be "discouraged" by an obligation of this kind, the Commissioner continues. Brussels therefore has “serious misgivings” as to the compliance of the Hungarian text with the general rules of the Treaty and has given Budapest two weeks to explain itself, as this issue is “urgent”, in Kroes's view. The other aspect of the letter relates to the obligation to register with the national authority required by the Hungarian law of all types of media, including internet media, which could also constitute a restriction on the principle of freedom of establishment for the media in Hungary. (S.P./transl.fl)