PRIME minister Viktor Orban has pledged to amend Hungary’s controversial new media law if the European Union demands it and countries with similar legislation change theirs.
But Mr Orban insisted that the tough media rules were perfectly in line with EU norms, as Hungary weathers criticism from the likes of Germany and France during the first week of its six-month presidency of the bloc.
Critics say the legislation gives too much power to a council staffed entirely by government loyalists, which has the power to levy large fines on publications, websites and broadcasters whose coverage is deemed “unbalanced” or insulting to “human dignity” or “public morality” — terms so vague that many media outlets fear the law will be used to muzzle critical reporting.
“We are part of the EU, there are rules of the game. Any procedure that the EU starts and initiates, Hungary will accept it ... If we are not right, and it becomes a fact, we will agree and we will correct it,” said Mr Orban. “However the most important principle is anti-discrimination, so I can’t imagine a situation where one says this aspect of Hungarian law must be changed while the same in other countries does not need to be changed,” he continued.
“There’s not a single part that cannot be found in a media law passed by another European country. We have assembled the media law from different sections of European countries’ media laws. We can only amend any section of the media law if it is also amended in the law of the country from which we have adopted it.”
Mr Orban said it was “not up to the French or Germans” to decide if the media law met EU standards, after both countries criticised it and a senior German foreign ministry official suggested that Hungary should not be allowed to lead talks on media freedom with EU Eastern Partnership programme members like Belarus and Ukraine.
The media law is only the latest controversial move by Mr Orban’s government since it took power last May.
He has placed allies at the top of most major national institutions, stripped powers from the constitutional court, changed the constitution ahead of a planned overhaul this year, made a grab for private pension funds and hit many businesses with a “crisis tax” to help fill holes in his budget.
The European Commission is querying the media law and the crisis taxes, after several major foreign companies complained that the latter seemed to target non-Hungarian firms.
The government denies this and says Hungary is being attacked for making big business share the people’s pain during the economic downturn, but Mr Orban – who has been compared to authoritarian Russian premier Vladimir Putin in recent weeks — admitted that Budapest’s EU presidency had begun badly.
“I agree this is a bad start. Who would want to start like this?” he said. “I cannot change it, I live with it.”