Hungary

[HU] Radio and Television Commission's Draft Media Act Intended for Public Debate

IRIS 2006-2:1/23

Gabriella Cseh

Budapest

The Hungarian National Radio and Television Commission (NRTC) issued on 6 December 2005 a draft for a media act, developed by 6 media experts. This draft is intended to be discussed in public debate and could lead to a negotiable draft act for the Hungarian Parliament.

The purpose of the draft act is to achieve compliance with the latest technical developments in the audiovisual sector, and to fulfill the relevant European legislative requirements.

The draft, which consists of 14 chapters, introduces new decision-making bodies in the area of media content regulation. These are the National Radio and Television Inspectorate and the Monitoring Council of Impartiality and Balance. Unlike the Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television in force, the draft introduces separate chapters governing the operation of commercial and not for profit broadcasters.

The authors of the draft emphasize that with the proposed provisions, the predictable and unpredictable changes of the media market could be approached in an open way and that they would determine the major trends. Therefore, the definitions of the draft are more abstract: it relates to programme dissemination in a technologically neutral way, and it reorganizes the tasks and the capacities of media regulation and the media authorities in Hungary.

Most parts of the draft reflect the consensus of all authors. However, the authors added dissenting opinions to some parts of the draft.