Hungarian Media Law: One Year Later
When a Nobel Prize winner is worried about the state of your democracy, you know you’re in trouble.
A column by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman appeared in the New York Times over the weekend, pointing out that Hungary is experiencing a backsliding of democracy. Entitled “Depression and Democracy,” the column painted a bleak picture for the global economy, which seems to have instigated a rise in rightwing nationalism across Europe that is contributing to this backsliding.
Charles Gati of Johns Hopkins University goes so far to claim “Hungary is no longer a Western-style democracy. It is an illiberal or managed democracy…” in his own op-ed that appeared in the Times two days after Krugman’s column.
That backsliding on democracy is felt strongly in the media. The draconian media law enacted a year ago has, according to Gati, “reawakened the old self-censorship that helps reporters and editors stay employed and news outlets stay in business.” It was acknowledged by the panelists, however, that measures in the law had not been implemented but it was the threat of some of the sanctions that was stultifying.
Among other measures, the media law:
- created the National Media and Infocommunications Authority, a body that oversees the regulation of all media, including the Internet. Members serve nine year terms and are all from the ruling Fidesz party.
- gave the Media Authority judicial authority and the power to levy fines of up to €727,000 on media outlets that don’t comply with the law.
- banned media companies that have been subject to past complaints from bidding for new licenses.
- removed the protection of journalistic sources.
The environment is such that state media outlets are dominated by the ruling Fidesz party, leading to political interference in the reporting. The most recent case involved Balazs Nagy Navarro, the president of the Council of Public Media Trade Unions and Aranka Szavuly, another union official, both of whom began a hunger strike on December 10 to call for an inquiry into a case of photo manipulation on a public television station.
Yesterday, CIMA and the Open Society Foundations held a discussion on Hungary’s Media Law: One Year Later. In addition to Gati, panelists included Miklós Haraszti of Columbia University and former OSCE representative on freedom of the media; Balazs Weyer of the Foundation for Quality Journalism; and Ellen Hume, an Annenberg fellow in civic media at Central European University in Budapest.
Highlights from the event:
- Gati: The character of the Hungarian regime is an illiberal, managed democracy. It’s not a dictatorship, but there is a demand for efficiency rather than democracy.
- Gati: Viktor Orbán believes that the West is in decline and what he calls a new “Eastern wind” is blowing.
- Haraszti: Not since communism has government told media what is proper to report.
- Haraszti: Guarantees of independence of media have been removed.
- Haraszti: Arbitrary licensing has inflicted self-censorship on Hungarian media.
- Haraszti: The media law outsources media censorship to the owners.
- Weyer: Maybe it’s not widespread self-censorship, but journalists are definitely discouraged.
- Weyer: Hungary needs to create a journalistic society where editors share standards.
- Hume: Journalists are looking over the shoulders in a way they didn’t anticipate after 1989.
- Hume: Three factors are attacking quality of journalism in Hungary: 1. Backsliding against 1990 reforms. 2. Global erosion of media business models due to the growth of the Internet. 3. Fragility of democracy exposed across the globe.
- Hume: Solutions to Hungary’s media law problems: 1. Get an EU directive on press freedom. 2. Enlist the support of the international community.
- Hume: 70 percent of Hungarians get their news from television. Online media is an undeveloped space.
You can watch the whole event here.
Further resources on media in Hungary:
Read more about the law from Mike Harris, Head of Advocacy at the Index on Censorship.
Hungary media law resource page of the Center for Media and Communications Studies at Central European University
Hungarian Media Law: International Mission Condemns Chilling Effect and Calls for Change
Watch a January 2011 interview with Miklós Haraszti.
EFJ Condemns Manipulation of Media in Hungary as TV Report Sparks Hunger Strike by Union Leader
