Hungary

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has launched a specialised website dedicated to press freedom-related developments in Hungary. The website www.hungarypressfreedom.org contains news, exclusive monthly reports, legal and political analyses, as well as expert opinions on the Hungarian Media Constitution and Media Act (Media Law) and its subsequent amendments. The website follows...

About 30,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Budapest Tuesday to support press freedom in the third and largest protest of its kind and despite amendments to controversial laws governing the media, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The demonstration was organised over the Internet and was much bigger than its January 14 predecessor, which brought out about 10,000 people. The details: [...

Despite positive movement on some of the worst aspects of Hungary’s controversial media, the core of the problem remains, since the composition and attributions of the all-powerful Media Council remain unchanged, says Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). European governments should make it clear to their Hungarian partner that this vote does not in any way absolve it of...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has described as “inadequate” the response of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes to Hungary’s controversial new media law and urged the country’s MPs to amend the measure. It said Croes’ demands to the Hungarian government were “in the right direction” but “not enough to remove all the threats to media...

Hungary's newly-instituted media council (NMHH) took over an inquiry into Tilos radio station launched in September, according to a letter from the council on the station's website. The inquiry relates to the station's broadcast of two songs by American rapper Ice-T in its 17:30 programme. According to the letter from the NMHH, the songs' lyrics were objectionable, and violated sections 5/B. (3)...

As leading European Union (EU) officials prepare for a mission to Hungary, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has urged President Manuel Barroso and his team to analyse and change the country's controversial new media law which the Federation claims is a breach of European law and violates principles enshrined in...

Hungary's government insisted Tuesday it would not bow to outside pressure and rethink its disputed media law, even after the European Commission expressed concerns and said it would sanction Budapest if necessary -- even during the nation's EU presidency, according to eubusiness.com. "It isn't necessary to change a Hungarian law just because it is subject to criticism from abroad," Zoltan Kovacs...

The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), have expressed concern at a draft law in Hungary that would impose extensive fines against journalists and publishers if they refuse to disclose their sources or publish information deemed inappropriate by the government. The proposed law, if passed, would seriously...

Hungary's parliament last week passed another element of a controversial media reform package which will force journalists to identify their sources in stories involving national security and public safety. The law comes into effect on January 1, 2011. If faced with judicial action, journalists would only be able to keep their source secret if such secrecy is ruled to be in the public interest...

The violent physical attack on an investigative journalist in Hungary recently has drawn widespread condemnation from its entire political class as well as the Humgarian society. Hungarian freelance journalist Iren Karman speaks during an interview in her hospital bed in Budapest, Sunday June 24, 2007. The reporter, who became famed after a documentary on so-called 'oil-bleaching crimes' of the...