Brussels, 08/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Hungarian authorities have agreed to amend their new law on the media and will send an initial text of amendments to the European Commission on Thursday 10 February, the Commission announced on Monday 7 February after a meeting between the staff of Commissioner Neelie Kroes and the Hungarian experts. This is “a first step towards ensuring the full conformity of the Hungarian law on the media with all aspects of European law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights”, said Jonathan Todd, spokesperson to Kroes. The Commission is also hopeful that the conflict can be settled “in a few weeks rather than a few months”. On 21 January, Kroes called on Budapest to justify three aspects of the new law on the media which entered into force on 1st January, which she felt could be illegal. These are the obligation of “balanced information” which extends to all audiovisual media, including video blogs, with no criteria, and certain provisions of the law applying to businesses established in other member states and the possibility of fines for failure to comply with the law, and the requirement, described as “disproportionate”, to register media, with no specific criteria. In a letter it received from the Commission on 31 January, Budapest pledged to discuss these issues, which it sees as largely technical, and amend its law if the Commission deemed this necessary. (S.P./transl.fl)