Brussels, 09/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes still has “grave concerns” over the situation of the media in Hungary, she revealed on Thursday 9 February at the European Parliament hearing on fundamental rights in Hungary. A letter on this issue was sent on 19 January to Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics, who also attended the hearing. The commissioner did not mince her words, noting that the Commission had already opened three infringement proceedings against Hungary (which the Hungarian government claims are being settled) and stating that current concern was focused on the quality of Hungarian democracy and the Hungarian political culture.
Kroes said that the debate was “not about myths but about hard facts”. In addition to respect for fundamental rights, there was also the economic dimension: foreign investors and international institutions were concerned at the environment in Hungary and wanted assurances of full media independence in their reports, she said.
Over and above the “threat to press freedom” from the Hungarian law, Kroes said that account had also to be taken of the context as a whole. Speaking, for example, from the personal experience of conversations with Hungarian nations, she cited instructions to police to target minorities, an increasingly open form of racism, and assaults on the Roma population. The media law must be taken in this general context.
In January 2011, the commissioner called on Hungary to amend its text, which it has done. “But we have always said we would continue to monitor the situation.” Recently, the fact that opposition radio station Klubradio lost several licences had re-aroused concerns. Kroes pointed out that this radio station “seemed” to give more air time to musical programmes than to news or political discussion. “While there is legally member-state discretion in this area, I am worried when that discretion is exercised to the detriment of media pluralism”, Kroes said, recalling, too, that in December of last year, the Hungarian constitutional court had indicated in a ruling that the media law restricted press freedom. The government has since decided to amend its text and to implement the recommendations, “but it is still not enough”, Kroes went on.
The commissioner now wants the Hungarian government to allow the Council of Europe (CoE) to assess its law and to seek CoE opinion on the compliance of the law with its various conventions - and then to fully comply with the recommendations made. On Wednesday, Hungarian Fidesz MEP Jozsef Szajer delivered a scathing opinion of the Council of Europe, deeming its means to be “limited” and its work to be insufficiently impartial. (SP/transl.rt)